Citation

King JL, Benhabbour SR. Pharmaceutics 2021; 13(7).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publications Institute)

DOI

10.3390/pharmaceutics13071053

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Gliomas are the most common type of brain tumor that occur in adults and children. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common, aggressive form of brain cancer in adults and is universally fatal. The current standard-of-care options for GBM include surgical resection, radiotherapy, and concomitant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy. One of the major challenges that impedes success of chemotherapy is the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Because of the tightly regulated BBB, immune surveillance in the central nervous system (CNS) is poor, contributing to unregulated glioma cell growth. This review gives a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in treatment of GBM with emphasis on the significant advances in immunotherapy and novel therapeutic delivery strategies to enhance treatment for GBM. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Language: en

Keywords

human; Review; Surgery; apoptosis; glioblastoma; temozolomide; nonhuman; cancer immunotherapy; cancer surgery; cancer research; polymer; antineoplastic agent; cancer cell; carboplatin; Chemotherapy; T lymphocyte; cancer vaccine; cancer radiotherapy; lomustine; blood brain barrier; cancer chemotherapy; drug delivery system; hydrogel; Radiation; drug carrier; molecular scaffold; antigen recognition; stem cell transplantation; Glioblastoma; carmustine; blood brain tumor barrier; Blood–brain barrier (BBB); Blood–brain tumor barrier (BBTB); cancer cell suicide; cell engineering; Focused ultrasound (FUS); focused ultrasound therapy; Hydrogels; immune checkpoint inhibitor; Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs); oncolytic virus; preclinical study; Smart hydrogels; stem cell engineering; Stem cell engineering; Stem cell-based therapy; tumoricidal stem cell