The importance and perspectives of antidepressant use in adjuvant therapy of glioma

Abstract

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a malignant and most agressive brain tumor. However, the current treatment standards and the progress that has been made over the last years in imaging methods and surgical techniques for glioma have not resulted in the extension of patients'live (the median is approximately 15 months). This situation has not been changed by the knowledge of unique changes at the molecular level of the tumor or the prospect of gene therapy, which has had grest hopes. These failures have created an urgent need to serach for new therapeutic strategies.

Since in recent years there has been an interest in searching for new uses of drugs outside their main indication (co-called ,,drug repositioning'') supplementing the basic glioma therapy with antidepressants may be an example of such a strategy. These drugs, apart from their antidepressant properties, are used among others in the the treatment of neuropathic pain, anxiety, cicardian rhytm disorders and appetite. The results of experimental studies also indicate theit potential anticancer properties.