Invasion of human glioma: role of extracellular matrix proteins

The invasion of glioma into normal brain tissue is a major challenge to clinical intervention because these tumors often highly infiltrate the surrounding brain tissue. Total surgical resection of gliomas is impossible, and recurrence of tumor growth is a common phenomenon; patients have a mean survival time of 8-12 months. Although in recent years substantial progress has been made toward understanding the invasive behavior of gliomas in vitro and in vivo, the factors responsible for the extensive infiltration are still poorly documented. This review focuses on recent research concerning the invasion of gliomas, as well as the extracellular matrix components, and the proteolytic enzymes involved. A better understanding of cell-matrix interactions will help in developing therapeutic strategies to decrease the invasion of gliomas.