Genetic alterations and chemotherapeutic response in human diffuse gliomas

Although for many years adjuvant chemotherapy has been used in the management of human diffuse gliomas, the survival of a large proportion of patients with these tumors has remained unchanged. To date, little is known about the factors that render some of these patients resistant to cytotoxic drugs. Since response to chemotherapy has been heterogeneous irrespective of glioma type, it has been proposed that some genetic alterations associated with glioma formation and progression may be responsible for the variations in the sensitivity of these tumors to adjuvant chemotherapy. In this paper, we review the literature and discuss the usefulness of some of the common genetic alterations in predicting chemotherapeutic response in gliomas.