UCSF Wolfe Meningioma Program Project

Further, there is no standard treatment for recurrent or more aggressive types of meningioma, and several aspects of meningioma tumor biology remain poorly understood.

The UCSF Wolfe Meningioma Program Project brings together UCSF’s leading clinicians and scientists to solve the problems that currently limit our ability to understand meningioma biology and provide more effective therapy to meningioma patients.

The UCSF Wolfe Meningioma Program Project is organized into four research teams with expertise in the diagnosis, treatment, and basic and translational investigation of meningioma. Ultimately, the goal is to improve care and develop innovative therapies for patients with meningioma. This research effort is made possible through the generosity of the Wolfe Family.

To support meningioma research at UCSF, visit makeagift.ucsf.edu. 

 

Project Summaries

 

Epidemiology & Diagnosis

Project Leader: Javier Villanueva-Meyer, MD

The goal of this project is to define epidemiologic risk factors and design optimal diagnostic tests for meningioma.

Using large, population-wide datasets, this research team is studying the incidence, distribution, and potential causes or risk factors of meningioma.

Further, by analyzing both clinical and medical imaging data, our investigators seek to identify which features of meningioma can be used to predict prognosis and outcomes for future meningioma patients. Using large datasets to predict and understand how different meningioma subtypes respond to treatment can help inform treatment decisions.  

 

Treatment & Clinical Outcomes

Project Leader: Michael McDermott MD, PhD

The goal of this project is to improve outcomes for patients with meningioma by determining optimal treatment and surveillance strategies.

Using archived data from over 2,800 meningioma patients previously and currently treated at UCSF, our team is systematically analyzing long-term clinical outcomes across this large dataset of patients, identifying surgical and radiation treatments with the best outcomes.

 

Biomarkers & Molecular Mechanisms

Project Leader: David R. Raleigh MD, PhD

The goal of this project is to better understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie meningioma growth, and in doing so, identify reliable biomarkers:

• Prognostic biomarkers are valuable in allowing molecular characterization of tumor subtypes and facilitating diagnosis, while also providing information about patient outcomes.
• Predictive biomarkers could help guide treatment decisions, by providing information on how likely a certain therapy is to work.  

Finally, understanding the molecular drivers of meningioma could help identify novel therapeutic targets.

Publications

Chen WC et al (2023). Targeted gene expression profiling predicts meningioma outcomes and radiotherapy responses. Nature Medicine. Online ahead of print.

Choudhury A et al. (2023) Hypermitotic meningiomas harbor DNA methylation subgroups with distinct biological and clinical features. Neuro-Oncology 25(3):520-530.

Vasudevan HN et al. (2022) Intratumor and informatic heterogeneity influence meningioma molecular classification. Acta Neuropathologica 144(3):579-583.

Choudhury A et al. (2022) Meningioma DNA methylation groups identify biological drivers and therapeutic vulnerabilities. Nature Genetics 54(5):649-659.

 

Model Systems and Novel Therapeutics

Project Leader: Nancy Ann Oberheim Bush MD, PhD

The goal of this project is to develop and study novel therapeutic agents to treat meningioma.

To do so, this team is developing ways to study meningioma using animal models and cultured cells. This allows our investigators to test targeted therapies for meningioma, ultimately generating the necessary preclinical data to motivate clinical trials for any promising, new treatments.