Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Jan;37(1):21-33.
doi: 10.21873/anticanres.11285.

Advances in Experimental Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy for Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme

Jiri Polivka Jr  1   2 , Jiri Polivka  3 , Lubos Holubec  1 , Tereza Kubikova  1   2 , Vladimir Priban  4 , Ondrej Hes  5 , Kristyna Pivovarcikova  5 , Inka Treskova  6
Affiliations
Review

Advances in Experimental Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy for Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme

Jiri Polivka Jr et al. Anticancer Res. 2017 Jan.

Abstract

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represents the most malignant primary brain tumor in adults with generally dismal prognosis, early clinical deterioration and high mortality. GBM is extremely invasive, characterized by intense and aberrant vascularization and high resistance to multimodal treatment. Standard therapy (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy with temozolomide) has very limited effectiveness, with median overall survival of patients no longer than 15 months. Progress in genetics and epigenetics of GBM over the past decade has revealed various aberrations in cellular signaling pathways, the tumor microenvironment, and pathological angiogenesis. A number of targeted anticancer drugs, such as small-molecule kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, have been evaluated in clinical trials with newly-diagnosed, as well as recurrent GBM. Unfortunately, to date, only a single anti-angiogenic agent, bevacizumab, has been approved for the treatment of recurrent GBM in the USA and Canada. The novel possibilities of cancer immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors, are being evaluated in clinical trials of patients with GBM. The most recent clinical experiences with targeted therapy as well as immunotherapy of GBM are given in this review. The relative lack of success of some of these approaches recently revealed in well-designed randomized clinical trials is also discussed.

Keywords: CTLA4 inhibition; GBM; Glioblastoma multiforme; PD1 inhibition; clinical trials; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; personalized medicine; review; targeted therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources