A narrative review on the management of glioblastoma in China

Chin Clin Oncol. 2022 Aug;11(4):29. doi: 10.21037/cco-22-18.

Abstract

Background and objective: Glioma is the most common intracranial primary malignant tumor, and half of it is glioblastoma. Despite receiving the standard treatment, the prognosis of glioblastoma is still poor and its 5-year survival rate in China is only 9%. In addition, new targeted and immunotherapy therapy and tumor treating fields also have certain curative effects on glioblastoma. To help clinicians and patients make appropriate treatment based on current evidences, we summarize the Chinese guidelines on the management of glioma and review the recent management of glioblastoma.

Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang databases to retrieve guidelines on glioma in China published from the establishment of the database to 24 January 2022. We performed a narrative review of current clinical study related to the management of glioblastoma, especially in the surgical, targeted and immunotherapy therapy and tumor treating fields.

Key content and findings: In this review, 19 guidelines were included, including 8 subclassified as the guideline, 8 subclassified as the consensus and 3 subclassified as the standard. Two guidelines reported the contents of the system search, 4 guidelines are updated, and 9 guidelines reported the source of funding. At present, most clinical trials on the immune and targeted therapy of glioblastoma are ongoing in China.

Conclusions: China's guidelines still need to be improved in terms of preciseness, applicability and editorial independence. In addition, the cooperation in clinical research of glioblastoma in multiple centers needs to be strengthened in China.

Keywords: China; Glioblastoma (GBM); guideline; management.

Publication types

  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Brain Neoplasms* / therapy
  • China
  • Databases, Factual
  • Glioblastoma* / therapy
  • Glioma*
  • Humans