The Impact of MGMT Promoter Methylation and Temozolomide Treatment in Serbian Patients with Primary Glioblastoma

• Published in: Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) Lithuania), 2019-02, Vol.55 (2), p.34
• Main Authors: Jovanović, Nikola, Mitrović, Tatjana, Cvetković, Vladimir J, Tošić, Svetlana, Vitorović, Jelena, Stamenković, Slaviša, Nikolov, Vesna, Kostić, Aleksandar, Vidović, Nataša, Krstić, Miljan, Jevtović-Stoimenov, Tatjana, Pavlović, Dušica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: glioblastoma; methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP); MGMT methylation; overall survival; prognosis; temozolomide
• ISSN: 1648-9144; 1010-660X; 1648-9144; 1010-660X
• DOI: 10.3390/medicina55020034

Despite recent advances in treatment, glioblastoma (GBM) remains the most lethal and aggressive brain tumor. A continuous search for a reliable molecular marker establishes the methylation status of the O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase ( ) gene promoter as a key prognostic factor in primary glioblastoma. The aim of our study was to screen Serbian patients with primary glioblastoma for an promoter hypermethylation and to evaluate its associations with overall survival (OS) and sensitivity to temozolomide (TMZ) treatment. A cohort of 30 Serbian primary glioblastoma patients treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy were analyzed for promoter methylation and correlated with clinical data. methylation status was determined in 25 out of 30 primary glioblastomas by methylation-specific PCR (MSP). promoter hypermethylation was detected in 12 out of 25 patients (48%). The level of promoter methylation did not correlate with patients' gender ( = 0.409), age ( = 0.536), and OS ( = 0.394). Treatment with TMZ significantly prolonged the median survival of a patient (from 5 to 15 months; < 0.001). Due to a small cohort of primary GBM patients, our study is not sufficient for definitive conclusions regarding the prognostic value of methylation for the Serbian population. Our preliminary data suggest a lack of association between promoter methylation and overall survival and a significant correlation of TMZ treatment with overall survival. Further population-based studies are needed to assess the prognostic value of the promoter methylation status for patients with primary glioblastoma.