[Principal fields of research into the pathogenesis of gliomas (author's transl)]

Our hypotheses concerning the pathogenesis of gliomas are based upon the study of numerous animal models. Malignant transformation is probably related to changes in the genome of somatic cells, caused either by chemical or physical agents or by the addition of viral material. Promotion of the tumor, which results in its clinical expression, would involve the failure of a hypothetical immune mechanism of surveillance. At the present time, we have no direct proof of the intervention of such various initiation or tumor-promotion factors in the pathogenesis of human gliomas.