Glioblastoma and its treatment are associated with extensive accelerated brain aging

Neurocognitive dysfunction is the leading cause of a reduced quality of life in patients with primary brain tumors. However, how the human brain responds to the tumor and its treatment remains largely unknown. Here we show that the brain of patients with glioblastoma shares features with Alzheimer’s disease and displays hallmarks of accelerated ageing, mitochondrial and neuronal dysfunction, and proteostasis deregulation, thus revealing new targets for managing cancer-related side effects. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for brain tissue from GBM patients (three regions: two near the tumour and one far from the tumour), five unaffected control individuals (three regions: region-matched to the GBM patient samples), and five AD patients (one region: region-matched to one near region of the GBM patient samples).