MENingioma Dural Tail (MEND)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Estimation of the extent of dural spread of meningioma using 68Ga-DOTATATE PET-MRI-guided dural sampling
IRAS ID
76389
Contact name
Thomas Santarius
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Meningiomas are the most common brain tumours and arise from the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain. They can be cured by surgery if the whole tumour is identified and removed. If any tumour is left behind, this can grow back, causing debilitating symptoms and shorten patients’ lives.
It is therefore vital to identify the full extent of the tumour to allow treatment with either surgery, radiotherapy, or both. More extensive surgery and radiotherapy come with more serious short- and long-term side-effects.
We want to understand whether the brightly lit tail seen on MRI scans extending from the tumour, known as the dural tail, contains tumour cells. A number of studies have attempted to answer this question but rely on conventional microscopic analysis of tumours once they have already been removed, with little preoperative information to guide the extent of resection. It is also not clear how far from the tumour itself the tumour cells may spread.
There was no way of doing this until recently. A precise marker has since been identified which we will use to learn whether the dural tails contain tumour cells. This marker is in the form of an antibody that is used for microscopic assessment of the tumour after removal and also a special type of scan called positron emission tomography (PET) which uses a similar marker to identify tumour cells more sensitively than conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast alone. This study will be the first to compare the use of this antibody and PET for detecting meningioma cells, which could help reduce the risk of meningioma recurrence.
Participants will be treated in a very similar way to present conventional treatment but will undergo PET/MRI rather than standard MRI preoperatively and small biopsies will be taken from the dural margin during surgery.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/NW/0139
Date of REC Opinion
14 May 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion