A Review of Therapeutic Agents Given by Convection-Enhanced Delivery for Adult Glioblastoma

• Main Authors: Nathaniel W. Rolfe (Author), Nicholas B. Dadario (Author), Peter Canoll (Author), Jeffrey N. Bruce (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2024-07-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.3390/ph17080973; 1424-8247
• Keywords: convection-enhanced delivery; drug delivery; glioblastoma; high-grade glioma; blood-brain barrier; volume of distribution; Medicine; R; Pharmacy and materia medica; RS1-441
• Source: Pharmaceuticals, Vol 17, Iss 8, p 973 (2024)

Glioblastoma remains a devastating disease with a bleak prognosis despite continued research and numerous clinical trials. Convection-enhanced delivery offers researchers and clinicians a platform to bypass the blood-brain barrier and administer drugs directly to the brain parenchyma. While not without significant technological challenges, convection-enhanced delivery theoretically allows for a wide range of therapeutic agents to be delivered to the tumoral space while preventing systemic toxicities. This article provides a comprehensive review of the antitumor agents studied in clinical trials of convection-enhanced delivery to treat adult high-grade gliomas. Agents are grouped by classes, and preclinical evidence for these agents is summarized, as is a brief description of their mechanism of action. The strengths and weaknesses of each clinical trial are also outlined. By doing so, the difficulty of untangling the efficacy of a drug from the technological challenges of convection-enhanced delivery is highlighted. Finally, this article provides a focused review of some therapeutics that might stand to benefit from future clinical trials for glioblastoma using convection-enhanced delivery.