Identification of immune-related candidate biomarkers in plasma of patients with sporadic vestibular schwannoma

Vestibular schwannoma (VS) is an intracranial tumor arising from
neoplastic Schwann cells, and typically presenting with hearing loss. The
traditional belief that hearing deficit is caused by physical expansion of
the VS, compressing the auditory nerve, does not explain the common
clinical finding that patients with small tumors can have profound hearing
loss, suggesting that tumor-secreted factors could influence hearing
ability in VS patients. We conducted profiling of patients' plasma
for 66 immune-related factors in patients with sporadic VS (N>170)
and identified and validated candidate biomarkers associated with tumor
size (S100B) and hearing (MCP-3). We further identified a 9-biomarker
panel (TNR-R2, MIF, CD30, MCP-3, IL-2R, BLC, TWEAK, eotaxin, S100B) with
outstanding discriminatory ability for VS. These findings revealed
possible therapeutic targets for VS, providing a unique diagnostic tool
that may predict hearing change and tumor growth in VS patients, and may
inform the timing of tumor resection to preserve hearing.

前庭神经鞘瘤（Vestibular schwannoma, VS）是一种起源于肿瘤性施万细胞的颅内肿瘤，临床常表现为听力损失。既往认为听力缺损系VS体积增大压迫听神经所致，但该观点无法解释小型肿瘤患者亦可出现重度听力损失这一常见临床现象，提示肿瘤分泌的因子可能影响VS患者的听力功能。本研究对170余例散发性VS患者的血浆开展了66种免疫相关因子的检测分析，鉴定并验证了与肿瘤体积（S100B）及听力水平（MCP-3）相关的候选生物标志物。本研究进一步构建了包含9种生物标志物的组合（TNR-R2、MIF、CD30、MCP-3、IL-2R、BLC、TWEAK、eotaxin、S100B），该组合对VS具有优异的鉴别诊断效能。本研究结果揭示了VS潜在的治疗靶点，为VS患者提供了一种可预测听力变化与肿瘤生长的独特诊断工具，或可为保留听力的肿瘤切除手术时机选择提供参考。