A new study published in the journal Cancers found, for the first time, a link between translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO), and survival rate in glioblastoma patients.
Glioblastoma is seen in adults and affects men 1.6 times more than women. Glioblastoma affects around 12,000 people in the United States each year. Patients with glioblastoma have symptoms such as seizures, persistent headaches, or loss of brain function such as memory loss and personality abnormalities.
Glioblastomas are extremely dangerous to patients. The typical survival duration is 12 to 14 months, and only around 7% of patients live for more than five years. As there is no cure for the disease, better therapies and techniques for improving prognosis are urgently needed.
In the study, The blood samples of 441 glioblastoma male and female patients were studied to determine the relationship between the TSPO polymorphic variant rs6971, one of the most common polymorphisms (variants) detected in humans, and the clinical outcomes of glioblastoma patients.
Males with the TSPO mutation exhibited shorter overall and progression-free survival time than females with glioblastoma. In females, there was no link between the variation and survival time.
According to the findings, the variation has the potential to be used as a predictive biomarker in glioblastoma patients as a predictor of poor prognosis.
“We have been thinking about sex differences in glioblastoma in terms of immune responses and this collaborative study provides an unexpected example of a polymorphism that shows a sex difference, suggesting that there are likely others that function in a similar manner,” said Justin D. Lathia – one of the study’s senior authors.
“This is an exciting new direction and will be the focus of future studies.”
The research team also included colleagues from the National Cancer Institute led by Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, associate director, informatics and data science, in the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology and senior investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.
According to the authors, this will be the first of many studies related to the use of TSPO as a prognostic biomarker.
“What we really need to do is understand the function of this polymorphism. Why is it associated with worse survival in male patients? Why do we see biological sex-specific differences? We have so many questions now,” she said.
The research was sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and FIU’s Office of Research & Economic Development.
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