Can glioblastoma be cured?

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly malignant central nervous system tumor that cannot yet be completely cured. It is highly invasive, grows rapidly, and is prone to recurrence. Despite the rapid development of modern medicine, the treatment of GBM still faces huge challenges.

1. Effectiveness of standard treatment: Currently, standard treatment for GBM includes surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy (the commonly used drug is temozolomide). Although these methods can prolong the patient's survival, surgery is difficult to completely remove the tumor, and residual cancer cells often lead to recurrence. After comprehensive treatment, the median survival period of patients is 12-15 months, and the annual survival rate is only about 5%.

2. Difficulties in treatment

The main reasons why GBM cannot be cured include:

Tumor heterogeneity: GBM is driven by multiple genetic mutations and is highly heterogeneous making it highly resistant to treatment.

The special environment of the brain: the blood-brain barrier prevents most drugs from effectively entering the tumor site.

High recurrence risk: Even if the tumor is initially controlled, there is still a high risk of recurrence.

3. Exploration of new treatments: In recent years, scientists have conducted a lot of exploration in the fields of immunotherapy (such asCAR-Tcell therapy, checkpoint inhibitors), gene editing and tumor electric field therapy (TTFields). Some patients have benefited from participating in clinical trials and their survival has been prolonged, but the overall cure rate has not been significantly improved.

4. Reality and Hope: AlthoughGBMThere is currently no cure, but some patients can achieve long-term survival or survival with the disease through individualized treatment, health management and rehabilitation care. In the future, through in-depth study of its molecular mechanisms and the development of more efficient targeted and immunotherapies, it is expected to achieve more effective control of GBM.

(Click to view an introduction to drugs for the treatment of glioblastoma.)

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Reference materials:

1.Stupp R, et al. "Radiotherapy plus Concomitant and Adjuvant Temozolomide for Glioblastoma." N Engl J Med, 2005.

2.National Cancer Institute. Glioblastoma Treatment Overview. https://www.cancer.gov

3.American Brain Tumor Association. Glioblastoma Facts. https://www.abta.org