Principles of treatment of malignant gliomas in adults: an overview.
The cornerstone of conventional treatments of malignant gliomas in adults has been surgical debulking, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Almost always a combination of these treatments is used. With these conventional treatments the outcome, as measured by survival and quality of life, has remained universally dismal. Novel treatments, which are at different stages of laboratory and clinical trials, may offer a ray of hope for treatment of malignant gliomas. Development of these methods are directly related to the discoveries, over the past two decades, of cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the genesis of brain tumors. Understanding of the mechanisms of tumor genesis may open new avenues of effective treatments for this devastating cancer.
Azizi
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SA
Department of Neurology, The Brain Tumor Center, Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA.
Miyamoto
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C
D000328:Adult; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005910:Glioma / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D017978:Receptors, Growth Factor / Q000627:therapeutic use
D017978:Receptors, Growth Factor