Anatomical Compartment-Associated Histopathological Phenotypes in Glioblastoma: Evidence for Location-Dependent Morphological Heterogeneity in a Five-Year Pakistani Cohort.

Authors

Hasan Saeed, Zafar Ali

Published in

JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association. Volume 76(Suppl 1). Issue 9. Pages S9.

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GB) exhibits marked histopathological heterogeneity, yet the influence of neuroanatomical location on its morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics remains poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate whether GBs arising in different anatomical compartments of the brain exhibit distinct histopathological and immunohistochemical phenotypes.
A retrospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Histopathology of Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad. Histopathology records of patients diagnosed with GB from 1st June 2021 till 1st June, 2026 were retrieved and data was collected from 1st June, 2026 till 20th June, 2026. GBs were categorized according to the intracranial location. Histopathological and immunohistochemical characteristics were considered phenotype-defining variables.
A total of 303 patients were included with 201(66.3%) males; having the mean age of 52.3±16.3 years. The temporal lobe was the commonest tumour location in 82(27.0%) cases. Nuclear atypia was identified in 297(98.0%), microvascular proliferation in 295(97.4%), hypercellularity in 223(73.6%), and pseudopalisading necrosis in 210(69.3%) cases. Distinct morphological patterns included spindle cell morphology in 79(26.1%), giant cell change in 55(18.2%), gemistocytic differentiation in 22(7.3%), epithelioid morphology in 16(5.3%), and clear-cell morphology in 11(3.6%) cases. A high Ki-67 labelling index was observed in 211(69.6%) tumours. Among the evaluated histopathological variables, fibrillary background demonstrated a significant association with anatomical compartment, occurring more frequently in temporal lobe glioblastomas than in tumours arising from other locations (p=0.020). Although tumours involving multiple cerebral lobes exhibited the highest frequency of a high Ki-67 labelling index in 46(88.5%) cases, the association between Ki-67 labelling index and anatomical compartment was not statistically significant (p>0.05).
GBs demonstrate compartment-specific histomorphological variation, with temporal lobe tumours showing a distinctive predilection for fibrillary background. The absence of significant regional differences in proliferative activity suggests that anatomical location primarily influences morphological phenotype rather than tumour proliferation. These findings provide insight into location-dependent histological diversity in GB and warrant further correlation with molecular alterations and clinical outcomes.

PMID:
42817671
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Oct 2026.

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