Imaging Correlates of Adult Glioma Genotypes

Primary brain tumors, most commonly gliomas, are histopathologically typed and graded as World Health Organization (WHO) grades I-IV according to increasing degrees of malignancy. These grades provide prognostic information and guidance on treatment such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy after surgery. Despite the confirmed value of the WHO grading system, results of a multitude of studies and prospective interventional trials now indicate that tumors with identical morphologic criteria can have highly different outcomes. Molecular markers can allow subtypes of tumors of the same morphologic type and WHO grade to be distinguished and are, therefore, of great interest in personalization of brain tumor treatment. Recent genomic-wide studies have resulted in a far more comprehensive understanding of the genomic alterations in gliomas and provide suggestions for a new molecularly based classification. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging phenotypes can serve as noninvasive surrogates for tumor genotypes and can provide important information for diagnosis, prognosis, and, eventually, personalized treatment. The newly emerged field of radiogenomics allows specific MR imaging phenotypes to be linked with gene expression profiles. In this article, the authors review the conventional and advanced imaging features of three tumoral genotypes with prognostic and therapeutic consequences: (a) isocitrate dehydrogenase mutation; (b) the combined loss of the short arm of chromosome 1 and the long arm of chromosome 19, or 1p19q codeletion; and (c) methylguanine methyltransferase promoter methylation. ^© RSNA, 2017.