Higher Mixed lineage Kinase Domain-like protein (MLKL) is associated with worst overall survival in adult-type diffuse glioma patients.

We determined that MLKL is an independent predictive prognostic marker for overall survival in these patients (HR: 2.56, p<0.001), even when controlled by the CNS5 gold-standard markers, namely IDH mutation and 1p/19q Codeletion (HR: 1.68, p = 0.013). These findings were confirmed in a validation cohort (n = 325), using the same cutoff value. Interestingly, higher expression of MLKL is associated with worse clinical outcome for adult-type diffuse glioma patients, which is opposite to what was found in other cell cancer types, suggesting that necroptosis undertakes an atypical detrimental role in glioma progression.