Progress on antiangiogenic therapy for patients with malignant glioma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor occurring in America. Despite recent advances in therapeutics, the prognosis for patients with newly diagnosed GBM remains dismal. As these tumors characteristically show evidence of angiogenesis (neovascularization) there has been great interest in developing anti-angiogenic therapeutic strategies for the treatment of patients with this disease and some anti-angiogenic agents have now been used for the treatment of patients with malignant glioma tumors. Although the results of these clinical trials are promising in that they indicate an initial therapeutic response, the anti-angiogenic therapies tested to date have not changed the overall survival of patients with malignant glioma tumors. This is due, in large part, to the development of resistance to these therapies. Ongoing research into key features of the neovasculature in malignant glioma tumors, as well as the general angiogenesis process, is suggesting additional molecules that may be targeted and an improved response when both the neovasculature and the tumor cells are targeted. Prevention of the development of resistance may require the development of anti-angiogenic strategies that induce apoptosis or cell death of the neovasculature, as well as an improved understanding of the potential roles of circulating endothelial progenitor cells and vascular co-option by tumor cells, in the development of resistance.