Transcription profiling of human pilocytic astrocytoma to develop molecular signatures

Pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs) are the most common glioma in children. While many PAs; are slow growing or clinically indolent, others exhibit more aggressive features with tumor; recurrence and death. In order to identify genetic signatures that might predict PA clinical; behavior, we performed gene expression profiling on 41 primary PAs arising sporadically and in; patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). While no expression signature was found that; could discriminate clinically-aggressive or recurrent tumors from more indolent cases, PAs; arising in patients with NF1 did exhibit a unique gene expression pattern. In addition, we; identified a gene expression signature that stratified PAs by location (supratentorial versus; infratentorial). Experiment Overall Design: 41 pilocytic astrocytoma samples were analyzed.