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Neuro-Oncology

Patient Gender Is Associated with Distinct Patterns of Chromosomal Abnormalities and Sex Chromosome–Linked Gene-Expression Profiles in Meningiomas

^aUnidad de Investigación, IECSCYL-Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain; ^bNeurosurgery Service, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain; ^cNeuropathology Service, Hospital da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; ^dCentro de Investigación del Cáncer, Cytometry General Service and Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

Key Words. Gender • iFISH • Chromosomal abnormalities • Meningioma • Gene expression • Microarrays

Correspondence: Maria Dolores Tabernero Redondo, M.D. Ph.D., Unidad de Investigación, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Paseo de San Vicente 58, 37007 Salamanca, Spain. Telephone: 923-29-12-30; Fax: 923-29-46-24; e-mail: taberner{at}usal.es

Disclosure: No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors, planners, reviewers, or staff managers of this article.

The female predominance of meningiomas has been established, but how this is affected by hormones is still under discussion. We analyzed the characteristics of meningiomas from male (n = 53) and female (n = 111) patients by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (iFISH). In addition, in a subgroup of 45 (12 male and 33 female) patients, tumors were hybridized with the Affymetrix U133A chip. We show a higher frequency of larger tumors (p = .01) and intracranial meningiomas (p = .04) together with a higher relapse rate (p = .03) in male than in female patients. Male patients had a higher percentage of del(1p36) (p < .001), while loss of an X chromosome was restricted to tumors from female patients (p = .008). In turn, iFISH studies showed a higher frequency of chromosome losses, other than monosomy 22 alone, in meningiomas from male patients (p = .002), while female patients displayed a higher frequency of chromosome gains (p = .04) or monosomy 22 alone (p = .03) in the ancestral tumor clone. Interestingly, individual chromosomal abnormalities had a distinct impact on the recurrence-free survival rate of male versus female patients. In turn, gene expression showed that eight genes (RPS4Y1, DDX3Y, JARID1D, DDX3X, EIF1AY, XIST, USP9Y, and CYorf15B) had significantly different expression patterns (R² > 0.80; p < .05) in tumors from male and female patients. In summary, we show the existence of different patterns of chromosome abnormalities and gene-expression profiles associated with patient gender, which could help to explain the slightly different clinical behavior of these two patient groups.