Ependymoma subpopulation lineages underlie clinical classification and outcome (microarray data set)

Introduction: single-cell RNA sequencing identified multiple subpopulations in childhood posterior fossa ependymoma. The contribution of individual neoplastic subpopulations to bulk tumor transcriptome-based molecular classification and patient outcome was estimated by deconvolution in a cohort of clinically-annotated primary and recurrent EPN samples. The abundance of EPN subpopulations was estimated in primary EPN samples and showed that the ratio of subpopulation fractions dictated assignment to the two main transcriptomic classification subgroups in childhood posterior fossa ependymoma. Longitudinal analysis revealed that subpopulation fractions changed between presentation and recurrence. Outcome analyses demonstrated that a different proportions of subpopulations were associated with differential survival. Gene expression profiles were generated from primary and recurrent surgical tumor samples (n=69) using Affymetrix HG-U133plus2 chips (Platform GPL570).