Increased expression of leucine‐rich α‐2 glycoprotein 1 as a predictive biomarker of favorable progression‐free survival in meningioma

Abstract

Most meningiomas, which are frequent central nervous system tumors, are classified as World Health Organization (WHO) grade 1 because of their slow‐growing nature. However, the recurrence rate varies and is difficult to predict using conventional histopathological diagnoses. Leucine‐rich α‐2 glycoprotein 1 (LRG1) is involved in cell signal transduction, cell adhesion, and DNA repair and is a predictive biomarker in different malignant tumors; however, such a relationship has not been reported in meningiomas. We examined tissue microarrays of histological samples from 117 patients with grade 1 and 2 meningiomas and assessed their clinical and pathological features, including expression of LRG1 protein. LRG1‐high meningiomas showed an increased number of vessels with CD3‐positive cell infiltration (P = 0.0328) as well as higher CD105‐positive vessels (P = 0.0084), as compared to LRG1‐low cases. They also demonstrated better progression‐free survival (hazard ratio [HR] 0.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.016–0.841) compared to LRG1‐low patients (P = 0.033). Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated that high LRG1 expression was an independent prognostic factor (HR, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.018–0.991; P = 0.049). LRG1 immunohistochemistry may be a convenient tool for estimating the prognosis of meningiomas in routine practice. Further studies are required to elucidate the key role of LRG1 in meningioma progression.