Correlation of immunohistochemical expression of HIF-1alpha and IDH1 with clinicopathological and therapeutic data of moroccan glioblastoma and survival analysis

Glioblastomas are aggressive primary intracranial tumours of the central nervous system causing significant mortality and morbidity worldwide. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic value of tissue expression by immunostaining of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α), isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), and tumour protein p53 in glioblastoma in Moroccan patients. The association of HIF-1α, IDH1, and p53 expression with the clinicopathological data and overall patient survival (OS) was also evaluated. Confirmed glioblastomas were included in this study. Twenty-two tissue samples were obtained by neurosurgical intervention resulting from total resection, and subtotal resection or biopsy. Karnofsky index, histological type of tumour, and the status of IDH1, p53 protein, and HIF-1α expression by immunostaining were reported. The majority of the patients were males (64%) with a sex ratio of 1.75. The average age was 54 ± 13. Median follow-up was 10.10 months and median overall survival was 10 months. The expression of HIF-1α was high in 10 samples (45%) and low in 12 (55%). There was a statistically significant difference in OS of 85% at 12 months for the subgroup of patients “HIF-1α negative IDH1 positive” p = 0.038, the unadjusted analysis showed that the group “HIF-1α positive, IDH1 positive” was a poor prognostic factor, the HR was 0.08 (95% CI: 0.009–0.756, p = 0.027). Patients with negative HIF-1α expression and positive IDH1 expression have a better prognosis, suggesting that these two biomarkers may be useful in the search for new approaches for targeted therapy in glioblastoma. •Brain tumours in adults, causing significant mortality and morbidity worldwide.•Glioblastomas are the aggressive primary intracranial tumours.•Glioblastomas are difficult to treat because of their inter-tumoral and intra-tumoral heterogeneity.•It is important to personalise care according to the molecular signature of glioblastoma for each patient.•The expression of HIF-1α is variable in glioblastoma, this expression is an indicator of intra-tumoral hypoxia.•A high expression of HIF-1α is associated with a poor prognosis in glioblastoma.