Treatment of adult brain tumors, in particular glioblastoma, remains a significant clinical challenge, despite modest advances in surgical technique, radiation, and chemotherapeutics. The formation of abnormal, dysfunctional tumor vasculature and glioma cell invasion along white matter tracts are believed to be major components of the inability to treat these tumors effectively. Recent insight into the fundamental processes governing glioma angiogenesis and invasion provide a renewed hope for development of novel strategies aimed at reducing the morbidity of this uniformly fatal disease. In this review, we discuss background biology of the blood brain barrier and its pertinence to blood vessel formation and tumor invasion. We will then focus our attention on the biology of glioma angiogenesis and invasion, and the key mediators of these processes. Last, we will briefly discuss recent and ongoing clinical trials targeting mediators of angiogenesis or invasion in glioma patients. The findings provide a renewed hope for those endeavoring to improve treatment of patients with glioma by providing a novel set of rational targets for translational drug discovery.

中文翻译：

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神经胶质瘤血管生成和侵袭的生物学。


尽管手术技术、放射和化疗取得了一定进展，但成人脑肿瘤，特别是胶质母细胞瘤的治疗仍然是一个重大的临床挑战。异常、功能失调的肿瘤脉管系统的形成和神经胶质瘤细胞沿白质束的侵袭被认为是无法有效治疗这些肿瘤的主要原因。最近对神经胶质瘤血管生成和侵袭的基本过程的深入了解为开发旨在降低这种致命疾病发病率的新策略带来了新的希望。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了血脑屏障的背景生物学及其与血管形成和肿瘤侵袭的相关性。然后，我们将重点关注神经胶质瘤血管生成和侵袭的生物学，以及这些过程的关键介质。最后，我们将简要讨论最近和正在进行的针对神经胶质瘤患者血管生成或侵袭介质的临床试验。这些发现为那些致力于改善神经胶质瘤患者治疗的人们带来了新的希望，为转化药物发现提供了一套新颖的合理目标。