Glycosphingolipid component profiles or human gliomas - correlation to survival time and histopathological malignancy grading

Background: Glycosphingolipids (GSL) are expressed on the surface of neuroe ctodermal cells. The correlation of a variety of distinct GSL with differen t primary brain tumors has been demonstrated. Three distinct GSL-component profiles (GSL-types I, II and III) of human gliomas have been defined by ou r group. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation of the e stablished GSL-types I-III with survival time and histopathological maligna ncy grading in 40 human gliomas. Methods: Neutral and acidic GSL-component patterns, histopathological malignancy grade and survival time, and a numbe r of other relevant variables were examined. Kaplan-Meier survival curves w ere analyzed with the log rank test. Results: GSL-type I was expressed in 1 8 tumors (17 Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and 1 anaplastic astrocytoma (AA )). GSL-type II was expressed in 11 tumors (7 GEM, 3 AA, 1 low grade astroc ytoma(LGA)). 10 patients presented with GSL-type III (3 GEM, 4 AA, 3 LGA). Kaplan Meier survival curves of GSL-types I-III differed significantly (p = 0.0231, log-rank-test). However, survival time correlated better to the WH O grades. Within a given malignancy grade, GSL-types gave additional inform ations about the proliferative properties. Conclusions: This is the first r eport of a correlation between survival time and human glioma neutral and a cidic GSL-components. The results are in agreement with observations of oth er investigators. The analysis of GSL-type expression might give useful add itional information about proliferative properties of human gliomas in a gi ven malignancy grade. In particular, the early prediction of outcomes in an aplastic or low grade gliomas might be possible.