[New therapeutic approaches in glioblastomas]

Abstract

Introduction: Current treatment of glioblastomas relies on surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, the efficacy of these therapeutics is still limited and new therapeutic approaches based on the understanding of brain tumor biology are emerging.

State of art: High expression of the EGF receptor by tumor cells, activation of the PI3K/Akt and the Ras/Raf pathways represent interesting targets for new selective drugs under development. Proteases inhibitors and antiangiogenic agents are also under investigations in clinical trials. Perspectives. In addition, the recent development of convection-enhanced delivery technique allows the administration of drugs which do not cross the blood-brain-barrier, such as selective toxins or immunostimulating oligonucleotides.

Conclusion: Though the results of clinical trials have been somewhat disappointing, using different drug combinations or drug-radiotherapy associations will probably enable an improvement in the prognosis for these patients in the future.