2010 Volume 19 Issue 12 Pages 892-898
The prognosis of patients with malignant glioma has been improved recently, mainly due to availability of advanced intraoperative technologies for aggressive and safe tumor resection, as well as introduction of temozolomide as a highly effective drug for postoperative chemotherapy. Their use along with contemporary radiotherapy constitutes the basis of the present cutting-edge management of these tumors. Other modern therapeutic options directed on the improvement of patients' survival are currently evaluated in various clinical trials. Particularly, several kinds of immunotherapy using EGFRvIII, WT1, or autologous formalin-fixed vaccine are under investigation as well as new vectors of recombinant herpes virus and oncolytic virus for gene therapy. Additionally, various local therapies directed on the improvement of the tumor growth control have been developed, such as slow-release wafers and convection-enhanced delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs, brachytherapy, photodynamic therapy, highly focused ultrasound, etc. It can be expected that in the future combined treatment based on the synergistic biological and biophysical effects of various therapeutic modalities on the pathological tissue will be translated in further improvement of the clinical outcome of patients with malignant gliomas. Moreover, newly developed treatment approaches with the use of stem cells, seem very promising.
