Cytogenetic findings in a case of pediatric glioblastoma.

We report a patient with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) which showed stable and unstable telomeric associations involving the short arms of chromosomes 4 and 7. The karyotype was hyperdiploid, with chromosome numbers ranging from 84 to 87 in all cells, and showed a single stemline with variations in the number of marker chromosomes, teleomeric associations, and double minutes (dmin). The karyotype designation is 83-86,XX,-X,rea(X),-4,tas(4;7)(p16;?p22),der(6)t(6;?)(p21;?), -8, -9, der(9)t(9;?)(?p11;?), dup(9)(p12p23), -10 x 2, del(10)(p11), -11,del(11)(p11), -12, der(12)t(12;?) (p13;?),-13, -14 x 2,der(14)t(14;?) (p11;?), -16 x 2, -19, -21 x 2, -22 x 2, + 9-13mar, + dmin. Loss of the short arm of chromosome 10, structural aberrations of the short arm of chromosome 9, and dmin are consistent findings in GBM, whereas the high chromosome number is less common. Chromosome instability associated with the phenomenon of telomeric association/fusion has not been reported in GBM.