Glioblastoma is the most common and devastating primary brain tumor and the standard of care treatment includes maximal surgical resection followed by radiation and chemotherapy.
Despite aggressive surgical and medical therapy, the median survival rate for patients is only 15 to 19 months due to near-universal tumor recurrence.
Studies have shown that glial stem cells (GSCs) represent a subset of cells within glioblastoma that are highly resistant to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, suggesting that glial stem cells are likely responsible for treatment failure and high recurrence rates in glioblastoma.
Therefore, cancer stem cells are a suitable target for glioblastoma therapy, and eradication of cancer stem cells is critical in the treatment of glioblastoma. The strategy of therapeutically targeting cancer stem cells primarily focuses on the direct ablation of cancer stem cells by targeting cell surface markers and specific pathways required to maintain the cancer stem cell.
However, it is increasingly recognized that another way to specifically target cancer stem cells is to alter the ability of cancer stem cells to interact with their microenvironment, including their dependence on angiogenesis and their immune-evasive properties.
