Present trend in the primary treatment of aggressive malignant glioma: glioblastoma multiforme

The standard treatment for glioblastoma multiforme is surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Yet this aggressive therapy has only a modest effect on survival with most patients surviving less than 1 year after diagnosis. This poor prognosis has lead scientists to seek alternative molecular approaches for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme. Among these, gene therapy, vaccine therapy, and immunotherapy are all approaches that are currently being investigated. While these molecular approaches may not herald an immediate change in the prognosis of these aggressive tumors, combining them with existing approaches may bring some progress in the standard of care. This paper reviews current treatments and several newer therapies in preclinical and early clinical studies.