Molecular basis for the impact of sex on brain tumorigenesis

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Abstract In the next year, approximately 22,000 Americans will develop glioblastoma (GBM) and nearly the same number will die from it. Further, we can reliably predict that of the 22,000 new cases, 8,500 will be in females while the remaining 13,500 cases will be in males. Moreover, while the median survival for female GBM patients next year is expected to be between 17 and 22 months, for males it will be closer to 16 months. The molecular bases for these consistent and significant sex differences in incidence and survival are unexplained. In the absence of an explanation, it is impossible to fully know what the implications of sex differences are for modeling GBM in the laboratory and for treating GBM in the clinic. Identifying targetable mechanisms underlying sex differences in survival are the focus of this project, and our goal is to improve outcomes for all GBM patients. Building on our published and preliminary studies supported during the prior funding period of this RO1, we now hypothesize that sex differences in cellular senescence contribute to the sex disparity in glioblastoma (GBM) incidence and survival. As radiation or chemotherapy induced senescence is a mechanism of stopping tumor growth, we will focus on the mechanisms that endow female cells with greater ability to undergo senescence than their male counterparts in response to DNA damage. While cellular senescence has been extensively studied in normal and pathological states, studies in cancer have focused almost exclusively on fibroblast and bone marrow stromal cell senescence in breast and prostate cancer models. There has been little to no investigation of the role that cellular senescence plays in brain tumor promotion or treatment response, or any focus on sex differences in cellular senescence. We have two Specific Aims in which we will build on our prior success and utilize the extensively validated model systems for studying sex differences in GBM that we developed. We will apply innovative genomic technologies to define the contributions of sex differences in p21 and Rb functions to the induction of senescence, and will determine whether Brd4 and sex-specific epigenetics are required for sex differences in astrocyte and GBM cell senescence and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype.