Future treatments of ependymoma
- Abstract:
- Although ependymoma is the third most common form of central nervous system (CNS) tumor, it is a poorly understood disease. The variable patterns of histology and clinical presentation, lack of consensus regarding appropriate means to stage and grade the disease, and the separation of pediatric and adult oncology services, have each hindered efforts to advance understanding of ependymoma biology and treatment. As a result, no new therapeutic approaches have been identified to treat ependymoma during the last 20 years and up to 40% of patients remain incurable (Brandes et al. 2005; Merchant and Fouladi 2005). The remarkable insensitivity of ependymoma to most nonsurgical conventional therapies has contributed further to this impasse in clinical management. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.