CLINICAL RELEVANCE OF MOLECULAR MARKERS IN GLIOMAS

Molecular markers are increasingly being utilized in diagnosing, prognosticating and predicting response to therapy of gliomas. The 4th edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Tumours of the Central Nervous System (CNS) was updated in 2016 and incorporates multiple molecular markers in combination with histology to arrive at an integrated pathological diagnosis1. Newer entities were defined and some were removed based on biological and clinical relevance. Clinical trials have retrospectively incorporated molecular markers and reported patient outcomes based on them, which have showed significant survival differences for specific subtypes of gliomas. Challenges with respect to interobserver variability in diagnosis based on histology alone or availability of minimal diagnostic brain tissue can now be addressed with the use of molecular markers.