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Chemotherapy for Glioblastoma: Past, Present, and Future

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Glioblastoma

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most malignant glial tumor and one of the most deadly forms of cancer. Despite being much less common than other cancers, glioblastoma exacts a huge toll on patients and their families. Efforts to find a cure for glioblastoma have been prodigious, especially over the past 50 years. Although these efforts have not been rewarded with complete success, important gains have been made towards the understanding and management of glioblastoma. Chemotherapy plays an essential part in the management of glioblastoma. The side effects of chemotherapeutic agents, especially their effects on the bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract, limit escalation of dose and duration of chemotherapy. The different strategies employed to treat glioblastoma have attempted to overcome such challenges. The exciting areas of glioblastoma therapy include strategies to target cancer stem cells, and immune therapies. The management of glioblastoma is poised to enter a new era, one in which medical therapies will be “tailor-made” to the molecular and genetic characteristics of the tumor in each individual case.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neurology, Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Pierre Giglio

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  1. Pierre Giglio
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Correspondence to Pierre Giglio .

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  1. Dept. Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Jonathan Lucas St. 96 , Charleston, 29425, U.S.A.

    Swapan K. Ray

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Giglio, P. (2010). Chemotherapy for Glioblastoma: Past, Present, and Future. In: Ray, S. (eds) Glioblastoma. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0410-2_10

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