Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Torsten Nielsen, Vancouver General Hospital, Canada
- Second opponent: Professor Mef Nilbert, Lund University, Sweden
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Lars Eide, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Emeritus Arild Nesbakken, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Associate Professor Bodil Bjerkhagen, University of Oslo
Summary
Solitary fibrous tumour (SFT) is a very rare fibroblastic soft tissue tumour which is characterized by a pathognomonic NAB2-STAT6 gene fusion. Up to 30% of the tumours will recur including both local recurrence and metastasis. It is difficult to predict how every single SFT will behave after the initial curatively intended surgery, particularly in a longer term. The patients are still at risk of recurrence even after 10 years, and historically used signs of malignancy don´t seem to correlate with prognosis. In the present thesis «Solitary fibrous tumour. The role of clinical, histopathological and molecular factors in risk stratification and prognosis» Tatiana Georgiesh and co-authors have studied different prognostic factors in a patient cohort with long-term follow-up. The independent prognostic factors identified by means of multivariate analysis comprised a fundamental for a novel risk score (G-score) which might become a practical tool in the clinic to accurately risk stratify patients including prediction of late recurrences.
Later, G-score has been independently validated in a large international cohort with long-term follow-up collected from nine external sarcoma centers worldwide. The results have showed that G-score is a significant predictor of recurrence and SFT patients continue to be at risk of recurrence up to 10 years after surgery. Based on G-score, a follow-up schedule has been suggested considering the risk of distant and local recurrence over time in each of the risk groups what could potentially improve survival of SFT patients.
Also, the associations between NAB2-STAT6 fusion variants, clinicopathological factors and prognosis have been investigated. Structural differences in the fusion breakpoints have significantly affected the risk of recurrence and survival. Moreover, the gene expression profile of the fusion groups looked differently in a subset of cancer-related genes what could suggest the difference in the biology of these tumours.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.