Expression of decitabine-targeted oncogenes in meningiomas in vivo

Treatment of meningiomas refractory to surgery and irradiation is challenging and effective chemotherapies are still lacking. Recently, in vitro analyses revealed decitabine (DCT, 5-aza-2’–deoxycytidine) to be effective in high-grade meningiomas and, moreover, to induce hypomethylation of distinct oncogenes only sparsely described in meningiomas in vivo yet. Expression of the corresponding onco- and tumor suppressor genes TRIM58, FAM84B, ELOVL2, MAL2, LMO3, and DIO3 were analyzed and scored by immunohistochemical staining and RT-PCR in samples of 111 meningioma patients. Correlations with clinical and histological variables and prognosis were analyzed in uni- and multivariate analyses. All analyzed oncogenes were highly expressed in meningiomas. Expression scores of TRIM58 tended to be higher in benign than in high-grade tumors 20 vs 16 (p = .002) and all 9 samples lacking TRIM58 expression displayed WHO grade II/III histology. In contrast, median expression scores for both FAM84B (6 vs 4, p ≤ .001) and ELOVL2 (9 vs 6, p < .001) were increased in high-grade as compared to benign meningiomas. DIO3 expression was distinctly higher in all analyzed samples as compared to the reference decitabine-resistant Ben-Men 1 cell line. Increased ELOVL2 expression (score ≥ 8) correlated with tumor relapse in both uni- (HR: 2.42, 95%CI 1.18–4.94; p = .015) and multivariate (HR: 2.09, 95%CI 1.01–4.44; p = .046) analyses. All oncogenes involved in DCT efficacy in vitro are also widely expressed in vivo, and expression is partially associated with histology and prognosis. These results strongly encourage further analyses of DCT efficiency in meningiomas in vitro and in situ. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10143-022-01789-1.