Current Management of High-grade Astrocytic Neoplasms—Small but Tangible Progress

grade astrocytic tumors comparable in scope yet greater in magnitude to that of the prior 40 years. This is thanks to the convergence of three factors: the introduction of an oral agent with antitumor activity beyond the blood–brain barrier and modest systemic toxicity (temozolomide); the demonstration through a well-conducted randomized trial of the superiority of multimodality therapy; and the fact that we now stand on the threshold of additional progress through key advances in translational biology, which, in many cancers, is providing new targets for therapeutic intervention.