Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and the most aggressive type of tumors of the central nervous system. Survival rate of glioblastoma patients remains low (two thirds of patients die within two years of diagnosis) in spite of extensive and rigorous treatment with a combination of different classical cancer treatments, including surgical removal of the tumor, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Poor prognosis is mostly a result of glioblastoma cancer stem cells’ resistance to conventional cancer treatment and invasiveness of glioblastoma cells. These can penetrate even as single cells deep into healthy, surrounding tissues thus making the complete surgical removal of a tumor impossible, and that is why it is highly likely that glioblastoma will recur.
To improve overall survival rate of patients suffering from glioblastoma, scientists from all over the world are trying to find different alternative treatments, which would prevent glioblastoma cells from invading into surrounding tissues and thus improve the effectiveness of classical treatment procedures. Especially cannabinoids that are chemically terpenophenols have shown great potential for reducing invasiveness of glioblastoma cells. Among all cannabinoids Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) has been most thoroughly and extensively studied, whereas little attention has been paid to the mechanisms of action of cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabigerol (CBG).
To introduce new strategies and alternative treatment methods in everyday clinical treatment of cancer patients we have to understand the mechanisms of their action as much as possible. In this work, I have gathered the information on current methods, used for measuring glioblastoma cell invasion, and described signaling pathways through which cannabidiol and cannabigerol affect invasiveness of differentiated glioblastoma cells and glioblastoma stem cells.
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