A computer tool that counts growing tumor cells may help predict if a meningioma comes back
Original title: Time-dependent prognostic value of automated Ki67 assessment and its integration with molecular risk profiling in WHO grade 2 meningioma.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
Researchers looked back at stored tumor samples from people, and this is a way to predict rather than a treatment.
The short version
A computer program that counts fast growing cells in tumor tissue may help show which grade 2 meningiomas are more likely to come back soon after surgery.
What was studied. Researchers looked at tumor tissue from 98 people with WHO grade 2 meningioma. A computer program counted the growing cells in the tissue, and it also skipped over damaged spots on the slide. They compared that count to gene based risk testing.
What they found. The computer's counts were lower than the counts pathologists had estimated by eye. In the first 38 months after surgery, a computer count above 3.62% went with a much higher chance of the tumor growing back in the same place. After 38 months, that link got much weaker. The computer count and the gene based risk score each added their own information, so they seem to tell doctors different things.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: This is one more way a care team might judge how closely to watch a person after surgery for a grade 2 meningioma. The tissue is already taken during surgery, so no extra procedure is needed. Because it is a computer count on a slide, it may be usable in places that cannot do gene testing.
What it doesn't mean: This is not a treatment, and it is not a cure. It is a way of measuring and predicting, so it does not change the tumor itself. The work was done by looking back at tissue from a small group of people at one center. It has not been tested in a trial, and it is not standard care yet. A number from this tool cannot tell any one person what will happen to them.
Source: PubMed, July 27, 2026 · Read the original
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