Integrated Analysis of Therapy Response and Resistence in Embryonal Tumors and Gliomas

The treatment of adolescents and young adults (AYA, 15 to 39 years) with malignant intra-axial CNS parenchymal tumors such as IDH-mutated gliomas, medulloblastomas and ependymomas is still not curative in all cases. The tumor biology and clinical needs to diagnose and treat these tumors are comparable across all age groups, so an integrated treatment environment overseen by adult and pediatric neuro-oncology specialists seems promising to leverage synergisms and advance diagnostic and therapeutic development in these tumors. A comprehensive, prospective and integrated biomaterial and imaging-based pipeline for the multi-faceted evaluation of AYAs has not yet been established for AYA patients with brain tumors in Germany. Current diagnostic platforms neglect the integrative processing of data from MRI and FET-PET imaging, radiotherapy plans, tumor tissue, liquid biopsies and clinical data as well as prognostic markers. A prospective AYA pipeline can therefore enable a better understanding of the aforementioned high-risk CNS malignancies and promises clinical advances for AYA patients and the clinical and scientific research landscape.