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Current Therapy for Primary Brain Tumors

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Brain Tumor Immunotherapy

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Abstract

Despite surgical and technological progress in the treatment of neurological diseases over the past 50 years, advances regarding to the treatment of malignant brain tumors (BTs) have not kept abreast. Malignant astrocytoma is the most frequent primary BT in adults, and accounts for 2% of all cancers in this population (1). The incidence of malignant astrocytoma varies considerably with age. For glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), it ranges from 0.2/100,000 population in the under 14 yr age group to 4.5/100,000 population in the over 45 yr age group. There is a similar but less dramatic increase in the incidence of ana-plastic astrocytoma (AA) with age, ranging from 0.5 to 1.7/100,000 population between the same age groups (2). This steady rise in the incidence of malignant astrocytoma, initially thought to peak in the 55-60-yr-old age group, has more recently been shown to continue to increase into the eighth decade of life (3,4). The average annual increase in the incidence of primary BTs in elderly patients in the United States, between 1974 and 1985, was 7.0% for the 75-79-yr-old age group, 20.4% in the 80–84 yr age group, and 23.4% in those 85 yr and older. These diagnoses were predominantly GBM and AA (4). The precise reason for this rise is uncertain. It may result from either the increased availability of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or, as suggested in one study (5), a true independent increase in incidence. Overall, there is a slight male predominance with both GBM and AA (3,6–9). With the incidence of malignant gliomas starting to increase in the fifth decade (7), this fatal disease inflicts an enormous social and economic impact, often striking during the most productive period in a patient’s life.

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Authors
  1. John M. Duff MD
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  2. Pierre-Yves Dietrich MD
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  3. Nicolas de Tribolet MD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Linda M. Liau MD, PhD , Donald P. Becker MD  & Timothy F. Cloughesy MD ,  & 

  2. Department of Pathology and Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Darell D. Bigner MD, PhD

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Duff, J.M., Dietrich, PY., de Tribolet, N. (2001). Current Therapy for Primary Brain Tumors. In: Liau, L.M., Becker, D.P., Cloughesy, T.F., Bigner, D.D. (eds) Brain Tumor Immunotherapy. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-035-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-035-3_3

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

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