Nigel Paul Davies1,
2, Simrandip Gill2, 3, Lesley MacPherson3,
Theodoros N. Arvanitis4, Andrew C. Peet2, 3
1Imaging
& Medical Physics, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust,
Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom; 2Cancer Sciences, University
of Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom; 3Birmingham
Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, West Midlands, United
Kingdom; 4School of Electronic, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of
Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
MRS metabolite profiles are useful for characterising brain tumours. Clinical, histopathological and genetic features vary between brain tumours at different ages in children and adults. However, it is not known whether these differences manifest as variations in tumour metabolite levels with age. This study investigates metabolite level differences and correlations with age across a cohort of childhood brain tumours (N=243). The only significant correlation after Bonferroni correction was between choline and age for medulloblastomas (N=42). This finding could not be explained by differences in maturation, metastatic status, gender or histopathological subtype; hence the potential association with genetic subtype should be investigated.