Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 11, 2026
A Protocol for Rapid Post-mortem Cell Culture of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)
Published on: March 7, 2017
Management of diffuse pontine gliomas in children: recent developments
Rejin Kebudi1, Fatma Betul Cakir
1Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, P.C: 34090, Millet Street, Capa, Istanbul, Turkey, rejinkebudi@yahoo.com.
Insights
Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) have a poor prognosis in children, with limited survival despite standard treatments. Emerging research into DIPG biology and novel therapies offers hope for improved outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Oncology
- Neuro-oncology
- Cancer Biology
Background:
- Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) are aggressive pediatric brain tumors with a dismal prognosis.
- They represent 10-15% of pediatric brain tumors but are a leading cause of cancer-related death in children.
- Current standard therapy, radiotherapy, offers only transient improvement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advances in understanding DIPG biology.
- To discuss systemic therapies administered in conjunction with or after radiotherapy.
- To explore novel therapeutic options for DIPG.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent clinical studies and research on DIPG.
- Analysis of data from biopsy and autopsy samples.
- Evaluation of systemic therapies and novel treatment strategies.
Main Results:
- Despite numerous clinical trials, prognosis for DIPG has not significantly improved.
- Increasing knowledge of DIPG biology is emerging from sample research.
- Systemic therapies are being investigated in various treatment sequences.
Conclusions:
- Multimodal and multitargeted therapies hold potential for improving DIPG prognosis.
- Continued research into DIPG biology and treatment is crucial.
- Novel therapeutic approaches are needed to combat this devastating disease.
Abstract:
The prognosis for children with diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) is dismal. Although DIPGs constitute only 10-15 % of all pediatric brain tumors, they are the main cause of death in this group with a median survival of less than 12 months. Standard therapy involves radiotherapy, which produces transient neurologic improvement. Despite several clinical trials having been conducted, including trials on targeted agents to assess their efficacy, there is no clear improvement in prognosis. However, knowledge of DIPG biology is increasing, mainly as a result of research using biopsy and autopsy samples. In this review, we discuss recent studies in which systemic therapy was administered prior to, concomitantly with, or after radiotherapy. The discussion also includes novel therapeutic options in DIPG. Continuing multimodal and multitargeted therapies might lead to an improvement in the dismal prognosis of the disease.
