Investigating the Metabolic Hallmarks of Oligodendroglioma

Oligodendrogliomas are primary brain tumors that tend to occur in young people and have poor prognosis. Developing deeper understanding of oligodendroglioma biology and creating new personalized therapies for this disease therefore a large unmet clinical need. Genome sequencing efforts have provided profound insights into genetic changes that characterize oligodendroglioma. Some of the genetic alterations commonly observed in adolescent and adult oligodendrogliomas are expected to have primary effects on cellular metabolism. Despite the likely role played by metabolic reprogramming in this disease, there have been few studies exploring this relationship. Researchers hypothesize that systematic metabolite profiling of oligodendroglioma samples will reveal metabolic hallmarks that help distinguish these gliomas from normal tissue and from other tumor types. Through this research it may be possible to discover unappreciated oligodendroglioma-specific metabolic dependencies that point to new therapeutic opportunities. The Children’s Brain Tumor Network will provide researchers with the rare oligodendroglioma samples necessary for this work. These associations may offer insights into the molecular origins and drivers of this disease.