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Review
. 2023 Feb;101(2):199-216.
doi: 10.1002/jnr.25134. Epub 2022 Oct 27.

The peritumoral brain zone in glioblastoma: where we are and where we are going

Martina Giambra  1   2 , Andrea Di Cristofori  2   3 , Silvia Valtorta  4   5   6 , Roberto Manfrellotti  1   3 , Vittorio Bigiogera  1 , Gianpaolo Basso  1 , Rosa Maria Moresco  1   4   5 , Carlo Giussani  1   3 , Angela Bentivegna  1
Affiliations
Review

The peritumoral brain zone in glioblastoma: where we are and where we are going

Martina Giambra et al. J Neurosci Res. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive and invasive primary brain tumor. Current therapies are not curative, and patients' outcomes remain poor with an overall survival of 20.9 months after surgery. The typical growing pattern of GBM develops by infiltrating the surrounding apparent normal brain tissue within which the recurrence is expected to appear in the majority of cases. Thus, in the last decades, an increased interest has developed to investigate the cellular and molecular interactions between GBM and the peritumoral brain zone (PBZ) bordering the tumor tissue. The aim of this review is to provide up-to-date knowledge about the oncogenic properties of the PBZ to highlight possible druggable targets for more effective treatment of GBM by limiting the formation of recurrence, which is almost inevitable in the majority of patients. Starting from the description of the cellular components, passing through the illustration of the molecular profiles, we finally focused on more clinical aspects, represented by imaging and radiological details. The complete picture that emerges from this review could provide new input for future investigations aimed at identifying new effective strategies to eradicate this still incurable tumor.

Keywords: glioblastoma; multimodal imaging; peritumoral brain zone.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no relevant financial or nonfinancial interests to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic representation of the cellular heterogeneity in the peritumoral brain zone (PBZ) that surrounds the tumor core (TC) of high‐grade gliomas.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
(a) Schematic representation of the role of CTRP8, encoded by C1QTNF8, in the development of resistance to temozolomide (TMZ) proposed by Thanasupawat et al. (2018). (b) Schematic representation of calcium channel inhibition and its role in glioblastoma.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Higher expression levels of PBK (left) and SERPINA3 (right) in the peritumoral brain zone (PBZ) compared with the tumor core (TC) and summary of their function in glioblastoma (GBM).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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