About 80% of patients with a brain tumor are affected by a glioma, a malignancy that arises from glial cells which provide support to neurons. Principal investigator Dr. Linda Douw and her research team at Cancer Center Amsterdam are investigating why primary glioma tumors seems to occur only in particular areas of the brain. Their latest scientific advances – a collaborative endeavor with researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital - were recently published in the journal Brain.

Previous research has indicated that gliomas are more likely to occur in the grey matter of the frontal and temporal lobes of the human brain. However, why this happens is not understood. Dr. Linda Douw and her team hypothesized that there could be a potential correlation between the location of glioma and areas of the brain that are highly active.

A 3D heat-map of glioma occurrence

The researchers first mapped the exact locations of gliomas from over 400 patients based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Each tumor occurrence was carefully converted into voxels: coordinates in a three-dimensional space. To create a 3D anatomical map of glioma occurrence, the comprehensive voxel data were combined with information from the Brainnetome Atlas, a map outlining 210 distinct cortical brain regions.

Pinpointing brain areas with high activity

To determine the areas in the brain that are highly active, 65 healthy controls were recruited since brain tumors may alter brain activities in patients. Brain images obtained by MRI were correlated with neuronal activity captured via magnetoencephalography (MEG) to establish the highly active brain regions in healthy individuals.

Superimposing glioma-occurrence and neuron-activity maps: it’s a match!

Superimposing the datasets clearly showed that brain areas with intrinsically higher activity are more often affected by glioma than regions with low activity. In addition, patient data revealed that high intrinsic activity at the location of the tumor is associated with more aggressive disease and poorer outcome.

While it is known that a higher activity of neurons surrounding gliomas may accelerate tumor growth, it is still unclear whether the high activity in these distinct brain areas plays a causal role in the origin of gliomas.
Dr. Linda Douw
Associate Professor, Dept. of Anatomy and Neurosciences

Altogether, the findings of Dr. Douw’s research team hold important clues towards better understanding the cross-talk between tumors and normal brain cells. Not only does this cross-talk influence the pathogenesis of the disease, but it also can affect its progress and symptoms of the malignancy, and may explain why some patients with glioma suffer from extensive symptoms and cognitive deficits while others do not.

For more information contact Dr. Linda Douw or read the scientific publication:

Numan, T., et al (2022) Regional healthy brain activity, glioma occurrence and symptomatology, Brain; awac180, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac180

Involved researchers at Amsterdam UMC:

Tianne Numan#

Lucas C Breedt

Bernardo de A P C Maciel#

Shanna D Kulik

Jolanda Derks#

Menno M Schoonheim

Martin Klein

Philip C de Witt Hamer

Arjan Hillebrand

Cornelis J Stam

Jeroen J G Geurts

Jaap C Reijneveld

Linda Douw

#Amsterdam UMC alumni.

Funding:

Part of the data collection was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Rubicon grant, Veni grant, Vidi grant) and the Branco Weiss Fellowship.

Text by Henri van de Vrugt.

This article was created for Cancer Center Amsterdam.

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