Gene expression profiles of meningiomas are associated with tumor cytogenetics and patient outcome.

Cytogenetic analysis is a powerful tool for predicting recurrence in meningiomas, even among histologically benign/grade I tumors. Despite this, no study has been reported in which the impact of tumor cytogenetics on the gene expression profiles (GEP) has been analyzed in meningiomas. Here, we analyzed the GEP of 47 tumors and correlated them with the most clinical relevant cytogenetic subgroups of meningiomas, as confirmed through the analysis of 172 patients. Additionally three normal meningeal samples were also studied. Overall, our results show a clear association between the clinically relevant cytogenetic subgroups of meningiomas including diploid tumors (n = 18), isolated -22/22q- (n = 12), del(1p36) alone (n = 4) and complex karyotypes associated with del(1p36) and/or -14q (n = 13) and their GEP. Accordingly, based on the expression of 85 genes (40 of which were coded in the altered chromosomes used for patient stratification) the cytogenetic class of the tumor could be predicted with an error of <1%, a clear association being found between the GEP and patient outcome (P = 0.03) but not tumor histopathology. In summary, we show a clear association between GEP of neoplastic cells and clinically relevant cytogenetic subgroups of meningiomas.