Malignant gliomas comprise a small percentage of all cancers, but continue to cause disproportionate levels of morbidity and mortality. Despite decades of intensive effort from many disciplines--surgery, radiation oncology and medicine--they remain refractory to cure and, in most cases, even to prolonged treatment response. Comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment is well recognized as the optimal approach. While continued advances and refinement in both surgical and radiotherapy-based techniques are certain, medical therapies are expanding at a much more rapid rate. This is due, in large part, to an understanding of the molecular events that underlie cancer pathogenesis and improved laboratory techniques to manufacture and study molecules that influence this process. This review will focus on medical therapies in the treatment of malignant glioma, never losing sight of their place as one of several therapeutic modalities used to confront brain cancer.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.