Role of molecular genetic factors in formation of the clinical type of neurofibromatosis type 2

Abstract

Neurofibromatosis type 2 is a hereditary disease with predisposition to the development of multiple tumors of the central and peripheral nervous system. The disease is characterized by significant variability in the clinical picture; the number of neoplasms, their location and growth rate largely determine the severity of the course. However, assessing the rate of tumor growth requires the availability of a consistent series of instrumental studies conducted within a certain time range, which is not always available at the time of initial treatment. In this study, based on quantitative (age of onset, age of examination) and qualitative (large number of intracranial tumors, large number of spinal tumors, severity of neurological symptoms, mosaic status of the genetic variant) characteristics, an alternative classification of clinical subtypes of neurofibromatosis type 2 was developed. We have revealed statistically significant differences (p-value = 0.037) in the representation of Halliday prognostic classes between the groups identified using the proposed classification which allows us to suggest the possibility of integrating this approach into clinical practice.