A case report of adult cerebellar high-grade glioma with H3.1 K27M mutation: a rare example of an H3 K27M mutant cerebellar tumor

Abstract

Diffuse midline glioma, H3 K27M mutant, is newly recognized as a distinct category, which usually arises in the brain stem, thalamus or spinal cord of children, and young adults. The oncogenic H3 K27M mutation involves H3.3 (encoded by H3F3A) or H3.1 (encoded by HIST1H3B/HIST1H3C), and the incidence of each mutation differs among the primary sites. Recently, several papers have reported that cerebellar high-grade gliomas in both children and adults also harbor H3 K27 mutation. With the exception of one pediatric case, all of the cases carried the mutation in H3.3. We herein present the case of an adult cerebellar high-grade astrocytic tumor with H3.1 K27M mutation in a 45-year-old man, which also involvedTP53 mutation and was immunonegative for ATRX. Some groups have reported that H3.3 and H3.1 K27M mutations define subgroups of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) with different phenotypes as well as genetic alterations. On comparing the findings of the present case, particularly TP53 mutation status and ATRX expression, to the findings of the previous studies on DIPGs, our case seems unusual among the H3.1 K27M mutant subgroup. Further studies are needed to clarify the exact frequency, clinicopathological characteristics, and genomic alterations of cerebellar gliomas harboring H3 K27M mutation.