The Personalisation of Glioblastoma Treatment Using Whole Exome Sequencing: A Pilot Study

The molecular heterogeneity of glioblastoma has been linked to differences in survival and treatment response, while the development of personalised treatments may be a novel way of combatting this disease. Here we show for the first time that low passage number cells derived from primary tumours are greater than an 86% match genetically to the tumour tissue. We used these cells to identify eight genes that could be used for the personalisation of glioblastoma treatment and discovered a number of personalised drug combinations that were significantly more effective at killing glioblastoma cells and reducing recurrence than the individual drugs as well as the control and non-personalised combinations. This pilot study demonstrates for the first time that whole exome sequencing has the potential be used to improve the treatment of glioblastoma patients by personalising treatment. This novel approach could potentially offer a new avenue for treatment for this terrible disease.