Canine meningiomas are comprised of 3 DNA methylation groups that resemble the molecular characteristics of human meningiomas
Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumor in humans and one of the most common primary intracranial tumors in dogs. Unsupervised analyses of DNA methylation or RNA sequencing data from human meningiomas reveal 3 molecular groups that are associated with distinct biological drivers, therapeutic vulnerabilities, and clinical outcomes. These consensus molecular groups are concordant with integrated clustering of copy number variants (CNVs), DNA methylation profiles, RNA sequencing data, and somatic short variants from human meningiomas. Here we test the hypothesis that comparative understanding of the molecular characteristics of canine meningiomas may shed light on the tractability of these naturally occurring tumors as models for meningiomas in humans, knowledge that might be particularly useful given the limitations of preclinical testing in genetically engineered mouse models of meningioma.