Multiregion biopsies and corresponding neurosphere cultures reveal spatial divergence in glioblastoma
Intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) is one of the main reasons for the lack of effective targeted therapies for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Imaging-guided surgical navigation allows for tumor-wide sampling to account for variation between distant regions of the tumor, but typical drug screening is performed on cell lines derived from a single biopsy and does not account for GBM heterogeneity. We aimed to characterize ITH in spatially distinct tumor biopsies and test how these location-related phenotypes can be propagated in vitro.We obtained human glioblastoma tumor biopsies from distinct regions of the tumor from 9 cases. For cases OS1, OS3 and OS7, we performed cell sorting based on 5-ALA, which accumulates in GBM cells, allowing for separation of tumor cells and cells of the... (for more see dbGaP study page.)