Oligodendroglioma patient survival is associated with circulating B-cells and age

Jennie W Taylor; Gayathri Warrier; Helen M Hansen; Lucie McCoy; Terri Rice; Geno Guerra; Stephen S Francis; Jennifer L Clarke; Paige M Bracci; Sara Hadad; Karl T Kelsey; Margaret Wrensch; Annette M Molinaro; John K Wiencke

doi:10.1093/noajnl/vdae143

Oligodendroglioma patient survival is associated with circulating B-cells and age

Neurooncol Adv. 2024 Aug 19;6(1):vdae143. doi: 10.1093/noajnl/vdae143. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Jennie W Taylor^{1

2

3}, Gayathri Warrier³, Helen M Hansen³, Lucie McCoy³, Terri Rice³, Geno Guerra³, Stephen S Francis^{4

1

3}, Jennifer L Clarke^{1

2

3}, Paige M Bracci⁴, Sara Hadad³, Karl T Kelsey⁵, Margaret Wrensch³, Annette M Molinaro^{4

1

3}, John K Wiencke^{4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
² Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
³ Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁵ Departments of Epidemiology; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

Abstract

Background: Variations in survival among patients with oligodendroglioma are unexplained by known prognostic factors. To assess the impact of peripheral immune profiles on prognosis, we applied immunomethylomics analyses-DNA methylation of archived whole blood samples, to characterize immune cells.

Methods: We compared the proportions of immune cells from patients with oligodendroglioma to other glioma subtypes and controls. We used recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) within the oligodendrogliomas to correlate with survival.

Results: Patients with oligodendrogliomas (141) were median age at diagnosis of 44 years; 57% male; 75% White; 60% prior chemotherapy; and 25% on dexamethasone at sample collection. Patients with oligodendrogliomas had immune profiles more similar to controls than other glioma subtypes, though with notably lower B-cells. RPA of patients with oligodendrogliomas delineated 2 survival groups based on an interaction between age and B-naïve cells. Patients with longer survival (median 24.2 years) were ≤42 years of age with higher B-naïve cells versus worse survival (median 16.9 years) who were ≤42 years of age with lower B-naïve cells or >42 years of age (P = .00032). Patients with worse survival also had lower CD4- and CD8-naïve T-cells. Similar immune profiles were observed in an independent cohort of oligodendroglioma patients prior to surgery.

Conclusions: Peripheral blood immune profiles in oligodendroglioma suggested that younger patients with lower B-naïve cells experienced shorter survival. Though our findings lack of validation cohort and use a heterogenous patient population, they suggest peripheral blood immune profiles may be prognostic for patients with glioma and warrant further investigation.

Keywords: epigenetics; glioma; immune factors; immunomethylomics; oligodendroglioma.

Abstract

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