Publications and Research
Document Type
Book Chapter or Section
Publication Date
Fall 11-2-2011
Abstract
Recent advances in molecular biology have led to new insights in the development, growth and infiltrative behaviors of primary brain tumors (Demuth and Berens, 2004; Huse and Holland, 2010; Johnson et al., 2009; Kanu et al., 2009). These tumors are derived from various brain cell lineages and have been historically classified on the basis of morphological and, more recently, immunohistochemical features with less emphasis on their underlying molecular pathogenesis (Huse and Holland, 2010). The detailed molecular characterization of brain tumors has laid the groundwork for augmentation of standard treatment with patient-specific designed targeted therapies (Johnson et al., 2009; Kanu et al., 2009). Nevertheless, these tumors are extremely aggressive in their infiltration of brain tissue (Altman et al., 2007; Hensel et al., 1998; Yamahara et al., 2010), as well as in their metastasis outside of brain (Algra et al., 1992). Further, it now appears that the physiological conditions of the normal brain itself constitute a biological environment conducive to the uncontrolled dissemination of primary tumors (Bellail et al., 2004; Sontheimer, 2004). This review surveys the latest research on the invasive behavior of two major types of primary brain tumors: gliomas and medulloblastomas - the most common tumors diagnosed within adult and pediatric brain, respectively (Rickert and Paulus, 2001). The material has been divided into five sections: i) Characteristics of malignant brain tumors; ii) Mechanisms of tumor cell migration; iii) Models for the study of brain tumor invasion in vivo and ex vivo; iv) Models for the study of brain tumor invasion in vitro; and v) Future prospects of anti-invasive brain tumor therapy.