Wisconsin, Aug. 9 -- : Like the toughest weed, Glioblastoma almost always returns, typically months after the patient's initial brain tumour is surgically removed. Because of this, the survival rates for this cancer are only 25% after one year and drop to 5% after five years.
The fact that surgeons can't always completely remove all of the tumour or glioma stem cells that may still be present in the brain presents one of the difficulties in treating this illness.
"The aggressive nature of the tumour cells in glioblastoma causes them to infiltrate the tissues around them. As a result, it is difficult for the surgeon to distinguish between the tumour and normal tissue, and because all of the brain's tissues are crucial, it is impossible to ...