Tumor-educated platelet RNA for the detection and (pseudo)progression monitoring of glioblastoma

We report RNA-sequencing data of 805 blood platelet samples, including 240 tumor-educated platelet (TEP) samples collected from patients with glioblastoma and 126 TEP samples collected from patients with brain metastases. In addition, we report RNA-sequencing data of blood platelets isolated from 353 asymptomatic controls and 86 individuals with multiple sclerosis. This dataset highlights the ability of TEP RNA-based 'liquid biopsy' diagnostics for the detection and (pseudo)progression monitoring of glioblastoma. Blood platelets were isolated from whole blood in purple-cap BD Vacutainers containing EDTA anti-coagulant by standard centrifugation. Total RNA was extracted from the platelet pellet, subjected to cDNA synthesis and SMARTer amplification, fragmented by Covaris shearing, and prepared for sequencing using the Truseq Nano DNA Sample Preparation Kit. Subsequently, pooled sample libraries were sequenced on the Illumina Hiseq 2500 or 4000 platform. All steps were quality-controlled using Bioanalyzer 2100 with RNA 6000 Picochip, DNA 7500 and DNA High Sensitivity chips measurements. For further downstream analyses, reads were quality-controlled using Trimmomatic, mapped to the humane reference genome using STAR, and intron-spanning reads were summarized using HTseq.