Advances in chemotherapy for brain tumors.

Malignant brain tumors, particularly those of glial origin, carry a dismal prognosis despite decades of therapeutic maneuvers. Surgery and radiotherapy have not been curative, and adjunctive chemotherapy has resulted only in modest increases in survival. This article discusses the current status of chemotherapy, the problems encountered with the interpretation of chemotherapeutic trials, and some of the new approaches currently being evaluated.