Whole-Genome Profiling of Pediatric Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas Highlights Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor α and Poly (ADP-ribose) Polymerase As Potential Therapeutic Targets

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Abstract
Purpose Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is one of the most devastating of pediatric malignancies and one for which no effective therapy exists. A major contributor to the failure of therapeutic trials is the assumption that biologic properties of brainstem tumors in children are identical to cerebral high-grade gliomas of adults. A better understanding of the biology of DIPG itself is needed in order to develop agents targeted more specifically to these children's disease. Herein, we address this lack of knowledge by performing the first high-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) –based DNA microarray analysis of a series of DIPGs. Patients and Methods Eleven samples (nine postmortem and two pretreatment surgical samples), the largest series thus far examined, were hybridized to SNP arrays (250 k or 6.0). The study was approved by the research ethics board at our institution. All array findings were validated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, fluorescence in situ hybridizatio...