Multi-region biopsies and patient-derived neurosphere cultures reveal spatial divergence in glioblastoma.
Intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) is one of the main reasons for the lack of effective targeted therapies for glioblastoma (GBM). Imaging-guided surgical navigation allows for tumor-wide sampling to account for variation across distant regions of the tumor, but typical drug screening is performed on cell lines derived from a single biopsy and does not account for GBM heterogeneity. Here we profiled matching MRI-guided multi-region primary tumor biopsies from 6 GBM cases (n=40 biopsies) and corresponding neurosphere cultures (n=30) derived from these spatially distinct tumor samples. We found that in vitro cultures derived from distinct regions of the same tumor display divergent phenotypes, proliferative capacity and ability to accumulate 5-aminolevulinic acid, used to visualize cancer cells during surgery. The differential drug response of the multi-region neurospheres remains linked to the gene expression of the original tumor biopsies. Thus, studies with multiregion-derived neurospheres are essential to faithfully model GBM ITH for therapeutic testing. KEY POINTSO_LIMulti-region biopsy-derived neurospheres represent distinct spatial locations in the GBM tumor. C_LIO_LICultures derived from different regions of the tumor retain phenotypic diversity. C_LIO_LIParental biopsy phenotype predicts drug response better than to in vitro phenotype. C_LI IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDYCell lines developed from spatially distinct regions of glioblastoma capture its intratumor heterogeneity. We show that while the transcriptional output of these cell lines is not connected to their spatial origin, their drug response can be linked to it. Thus, spatial heterogeneity reflected in our neurosphere collection provides a new paradigm for drug screening in these highly heterogenous and difficult to treat tumors.