Multicentric Glioma: An Ideal Model to Reveal the Mechanism of Glioma

As a special type of glioma, multicentric glioma provides an ideal pathological model for glioma research. According to the stem-cell-origin theory, multiple lesions of multicentric glioma share the same neuro-oncological origin, both in gene level and in cell level. Although the number of studies focusing on genetic evolution in gliomas with the model of multicentric gliomas were limited, some mutations, including IDH1 mutations, TERTp mutations and PTEN deletions, are found to be at an early stage in the process of genetic aberrance during glioma evolution based on the results of these studies. This article reviews the clinical reports and genetic studies of multicentric glioma, and intends to explain the various clinical phenomena of multicentric glioma from the perspective of genetic aberrance accumulation and tumor cell evolution. The malignant degree of a glioma is determined by both the tumorigenicity of early mutant genes, and the stemness of early suffered cells.