title: Drug or vaccine?: selecting the appropriate treatment for malignant glioma patients.
abstract: Malignant gliomas are the most common and aggressive form of brain tumour. Current combinations of aggressive surgical resection, radiation therapy and chemotherapy regimens do not significantly improve long-term patient survival for these cancers. Therefore, investigative therapies including tumour vaccines have targeted this devastating condition. This article reviews evidence and data on chemotherapy and immunotherapy for a personalized medicine approach in order to enable physicians to select the appropriate treatment for glioma patients. Dendritic cell- and peptide-based therapy for gliomas seems to be safe and without major adverse effects. Gene-modified vaccines have also shown promise in the treatment of malignant gliomas. The concept of 'personalized medicine' is currently important in oncology treatment development. Using a personalized medicine approach, it may be necessary to evaluate the molecular genetic abnormalities in individual patient tumours, and such findings should be the mainstay of immunotherapeutic strategies designed for the individual patient.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xue-jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Wei-jian
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Wei-min
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shu-jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005910:Glioma / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D057285:Precision Medicine
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D019496:Cancer Vaccines