Recurrence-associated chromosomal anomalies in meningiomas: Single-institution study and a systematic review with meta-analysis

•WHO grade II or III and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on 1p, and 14q are responsible for recurrence of a sporadic meningioma.•WHO grading has greater impact on further tumour behaviour than molecular findings.•Sparse reporting of the rate of resection prevents full meta-analysing. Complete removal of a meningioma (MG) does not guarantee relapse-free survival. Alterations on several chromosomes responsible for MG recurrence were suggested, although their role was not validated by a systematic review. Following the analysis of own 161 cases, all previously published data has been collected for evidence synthesis. Based on own series, WHO grade >I (odds ratio (OR)=92.0; 95%CI: 19.1–443.5) and a combination of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on 1p and 14q (OR=10.2; 95%CI: 19–55.7) were the independent recurrence-specific prognosticators. The deleterious role of LOH on 1p/14q was demonstrated in a subset of parasagittal and falcine MGs. A total of 742 cases and 10 studies were pooled for the Individual Patient Data and Aggregate Data models of meta-analysis, respectively. The prognostic role of WHO classification (OR=90.4) and anomaly of chromosome 14 (OR=3.5) was confirmed. LOH on 14 showed lesser impact on recurrence than suggested by the WHO grading (area under the curve 0.65 for LOH vs. 0.74 for WHO). Fixed effect model of meta-analysis provided high summarized OR values for 1p (OR=5.4; 95%CI: 3.6–8.1) and 14q (OR=7.6; 95%CI: 4.3–13.6), and low for chromosome 22 (OR=1.6; 95%CI: 1.1–2.4). Final appraisal of recurrence-associated chromosomal alterations indicated that arms 1p and 14q deserve attention while predicting MG recurrence.