How is glioblastoma treated?

  Glioblastoma is the most malignant glioma among astrocytic tumors and is a WHO grade IV tumor. Most glioblastomas originate in the brain parenchyma, but can also be secondary to the further malignant transformation of mesenchymal astrocytoma or other gliomas. The prognosis of glioblastoma is very poor because of the high malignancy of the tumor and the high risk of recurrence after surgery. 95% of untreated patients have a survival time of less than 3 months.  The treatment of glioblastoma is based on surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other comprehensive treatments.  If surgery is not contraindicated, surgery is the first choice for glioblastoma. Surgery should be performed to remove as many tumors as possible without aggravating neurological dysfunction. Expanding the scope of tumor resection can not only effectively perform internal decompression, but also reduce the increase of intracranial pressure caused by postoperative cerebral edema and decrease the incidence of neurological complications. For tumors located in important functional areas (language center or motor center), in order not to aggravate the brain dysfunction, most of them can only be partially resected. For tumors located at important vital centers such as brain stem, basal ganglia and thalamus, tumors can be strictly resected under microscope and external decompression can be done at the end of surgery.  2.Radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy Every patient should have postoperative conventional radiotherapy, and chemotherapy or immunotherapy can also be combined.  Glioblastoma has a certain degree of tolerance to radiotherapy, and postoperative radiotherapy is recommended to be started as soon as possible in about 2-4 weeks. Routine segmentation (1.8-2.0Gy/time, 5 times/week) external irradiation with 6-10MV X-rays is strongly recommended, and the total dose of standard radiotherapy is 54-60Gy with 30-33 segmentations Glioblastoma sensitivity to different chemotherapy is 40%-80%. Within 1 month after radiotherapy, if there is no discomfort, adjuvant chemotherapy can be administered, which usually requires 6 courses of treatment.  Currently, temozolomide (TMZ) synchronized radiotherapy combined with adjuvant chemotherapy has become the standard regimen for newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM).  Recently, there are also many reports on immunotherapy and gene therapy for glioblastoma, but due to the inconsistency of treatment methods and effect evaluation criteria, none of the effects are very certain, and they can only be used as some attempts after comprehensive treatment, and cannot replace radiotherapy.