The role of extracellular matrix components in the invasion of intracranial malignancies

Abstract

The usual local recurrence of primary brain tumors is mainly due to the infiltration of adjacent brain parenchyma by the glioma cells. This invasive feature of the tumors makes total surgical excision impossible and also decreases the efficacy of focal radiotherapy. Interestingly, intracerebral metastases originating from many anaplastic tumors of other organs perform very moderate peritumoral infiltration, therefore radical resection can be routinely achieved and focal irradiation, even stereotactic radiotherapy, provides good tumor control. Differences in the effectiveness of treatment between the two tumor types derive from the remarkably different extent of peritumoral infiltration. Thus significant molecular biological research has been dealing with the infiltrative activity of various brain tumors and many attempts were made to develop anti-invasive drugs for oncotherapy. This review summarizes the results of these studies, describing cellular and molecular events of brain tumor invasion and according potential oncotherapeutic possibilities.