Cerebrospinal fluid diagnostics

Scientists of the Fraunhofer ITEM Division of Personalized Tumor Therapy, therefore, are collaborating with the study group on primary and secondary malignant brain tumors in adults of the Bavarian Cancer Research Center (BZKF) to develop technologies for minimally invasive, longitudinal, molecular genetic characterization of such cancers. For this purpose, they analyze cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from patients by means of lumbar puncture in the sense of a liquid biopsy, to detect small numbers of tumor cells and evaluate other relevant biomarkers. The aims of this project are, firstly, to define pre-analytical standards for biomarker studies with CSF and, secondly, to develop molecular genetic tests based on panel sequencing, i.e. sequencing of a set of clinically relevant genes. It is intended to use these tests initially in clinical trials and, in the long term, for predictive diagnostics of CNS tumors.