ABSTRACT
Malignant gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults; they include 78% of all primary malignant brain tumors. The efficacy of multimodal therapeutic strategies in gliomas is limited by the lack of specific therapies against the malignant cells. In this chapter, the authors describe the principal applications of nanomedicine in malignant gliomas and discuss various preclinical and/or clinical studies used to treat these aggressive brain tumors. The standard treatment of gliomas is multimodal and embraces surgical treatment, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology in healthcare. It is a revolutionary discovery in disease diagnosis and therapy with potential application in cancer research and treatment. In particular, nanoparticles allow entry of drugs within the blood–brain barrier and, thus reduce doses administered, side effects and resistance. Molecular biology studies are certainly more interesting, and allow the identification of many molecular biomarkers that, if affected, could cause a slowing of the tumor progression.
