Molecular diagnosis of diffuse gliomas from cerebrospinal fluid

Takeaway

  • Chip-based digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) extracted from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can be used to molecularly diagnose gliomas with high sensitivity and specificity.

Why this matters

    The World Health Organization (WHO) classification of gliomas requires invasive biopsies from deep brain tissues; however, this study supports that new technologies like chip-based digital PCR may allow for non-invasive molecular diagnosis of diffuse gliomas.