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Review
. 2020 Aug 24;2(2):e000069.
doi: 10.1136/bmjno-2020-000069. eCollection 2020.

Potential biomarkers and challenges in glioma diagnosis, therapy and prognosis

Liyen Katrina Kan  1   2 , Kate Drummond  3 , Martin Hunn  4 , David Williams  2 , Terence J O'Brien  1   5 , Mastura Monif  1   2   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Potential biomarkers and challenges in glioma diagnosis, therapy and prognosis

Liyen Katrina Kan et al. BMJ Neurol Open. .

Abstract

Gliomas are the most common central nervous system malignancies and present with significant morbidity and mortality. Treatment modalities are currently limited to surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Increases in survival rate over the previous decades are negligible, further pinpointing an unmet clinical need in this field. There is a continual struggle with the development of effective glioma diagnostics and therapeutics, largely due to a multitude of factors, including the presence of the blood-brain barrier and significant intertumoural and intratumoural heterogeneity. Importantly, there is a lack of reliable biomarkers for glioma, particularly in aiding tumour subtyping and measuring response to therapy. There is a need for biomarkers that would both overcome the complexity of the disease and allow for a minimally invasive means of detection and analysis. This is a comprehensive review evaluating the potential of current cellular, proteomic and molecular biomarker candidates for glioma. Significant hurdles faced in glioma diagnostics and therapy are also discussed here.

Keywords: molecular biology; neurobiology; neurooncology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of current challenges in glioma diagnosis, therapy and prognosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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