Alan Wright1, Greg A. Fellows2,
John R. Griffiths3, Martin Wilson4,5, B Anthony Bell2,
Franklyn Arron Howe2
1Radiology, Radboud University Nijmegen
Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands; 2St George's University of
London, United Kingdom; 3CRUK Cambridge Research Institute, United
Kingdom; 4University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; 5Birmingham
Childrens Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom
MRS
has the potential to provide diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for brain
tumours in vivo. We have used the ex vivo technique of 1H
HRMAS NMR spectroscopy of brain tumour samples to identify the NMR visible
metabolites in the common adult brain tumours. This has lead to the
identification of 29 small molecule metabolites observable in spectra from a
set of 65 tumours including grade II astrocytomas, grade III gliomas, GBMs,
lymphomas, metastases and meningiomas. We have also identified some
novel-potential biomarkers for binary brain-tumour diagnostic comparisons.
These include hypotaurine as a marker for GBM when compared to metastases or
histidine as a positive marker for gliomas when compared to metastases or
meningioma.