Opportunities for clinical research in meningioma

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Neuro-oncology
• Clinical Trials

Background:

• Benign meningiomas are typically treated with surgical resection.
• Optimal management for subtotally resected, recurrent, or aggressive (World Health Organization grade II and III) meningiomas lacks definition.
• There is a paucity of high-quality evidence and perceived minimal survival benefit from current interventions for these challenging cases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review existing clinical trials for incompletely treated or non-benign meningiomas.
• To identify unmet needs in defining optimal treatment strategies.
• To discuss ongoing efforts in developing new clinical trials for meningioma management.

Main Methods:

• Review of completed and attempted cooperative group and clinical consortia trials.
• Analysis of evidence gaps in meningioma treatment.
• Discussion of future trial development strategies.

Main Results:

• Current evidence for optimal treatment of aggressive or incompletely treated meningiomas is limited.
• Significant unmet needs exist in establishing definitive therapeutic regimens.
• Opportunities for high-quality, prospective, multicenter clinical trials are substantial.

Conclusions:

• Further high-quality clinical trials are essential to determine optimal treatment for challenging meningioma cases.
• Developing new trials is crucial to address therapeutic questions and improve patient outcomes.
• Defining effective treatment regimens is a critical area for future research in meningioma management.