Meningioma Metabolic Subgroups Revealed by NMR Spectroscopy

Daniel Monleon¹, Jose Manuel Morales², Ana Gonzalez-Segura¹, Concha Lopez-Gines, Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Darder³, Rosario Gil-Benso, Miguel Cerda-Nicolas

Sometimes, meningiomas with histological diagnosis of benign meningioma show clinical characteristics of atypical meningioma. Additional criteria for better classification of meningiomas will improve clinical decisions like resection extension, additional radiotherapy needs, treatment selection and patient follow up strategy after surgery. In this communication, we used NMR metabolic profiling for molecular characterization of 30 benign and 10 atypical meningiomas. The metabolic phenotype measured by HR-MAS allows detecting metabolic aggressiveness in otherwise benign tumors. The metabolic and genetic profile obtained for this new subgroup of meningiomas place them biochemically closer to atypical meningioma than to the conventional benign meningioma. Our study revealed a subgroup of benign meningiomas with aggressive metabolism and chromosomal instabilities. This is the first time than differential metabolic profiles are reported for tumors with the same histological grade. The methodology used in this study may also open new possibilities in the diagnosis of meningioma.