title: Incidence of kiaa1549-braf fusion gene in Egyptian pediatric low grade glioma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Low grade gliomas are the most common brain tumor in children. Tandem duplication involving the KIAA1549 and the BRAF kinase genes results in a gene fusion that has been recently characterized in a subset of low grade glioma While there is no clear evidence that the KIAA1549-BRAF gene fusion has an effect on prognosis, it is an attractive target for therapy development and as a diagnostic tool.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the current study we examine the prevalence of KIAA1549-BRAF gene fusion in pediatric patients diagnosed with low grade glioma in the Egyptian population and its relationship to clinical and histological subtypes. Sixty patients between the ages of 1 to 18 years were analyzed for the presence of KIAA1549-BRAF fusion gene products using reverse transcription-PCR and sequencing. The clinicopathologic tumor characteristics were then analyzed in relation to the different fusion genes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  KIAA1549-BRAF fusion genes were detected in 56.6% of patients. They were primarily associated with pilocytic astrocytoma (74.2%) and pilomyxoid astrocytoma (60%). Translocation 15-9 was the most common, representing (55.8%) of all positive samples followed by 16-9 (26.4%) and 16-11 (8.8%). Pilocytic astrocytomas presented primarily with 15-9 (32.2%), 16-9 (25.8%) and 16-11 (6.4%) while pilomyxoid astrocytomas presented with 15-9 (46.6%), 16-9 (6.6%) and 16-11 (6.6%) translocations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gene fusion is found to be significantly increased in cerebellar pilocytic astrocytoma tumors. Furthermore, 15-9 was found to have a higher incidence among our cohort compared to previous studies. While most of the gene fusion positive pilomyxoid astrocytomas were 15-9, we find the association none significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, P.O Box 11441, 1 Sekeat El-Imam, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Hala
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Taha
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, P.O Box 11441, 1 Sekeat El-Imam, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Maha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yehia
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Oncology, Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, P.O Box 11441, 1 Sekeat El-Imam, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Madeha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahmoud
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, P.O Box 11441, 1 Sekeat El-Imam, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Beltagy
authors.affiliation: Basic Research Department, Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, P.O Box 11441, 1 Sekeat El-Imam, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Myret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghabriel
authors.affiliation: Basic Research Department, Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, P.O Box 11441, 1 Sekeat El-Imam, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Shahenda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: El-Naggar
keywords: BRAF; Cancer; Gene fusion; Glioma; KIAA1549