Brain tumor
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive (grade IV) and most common form of a malignant brain tumor. Even when aggressive multimodality therapy consisting of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgical excision is used, median survival is only 12–17 months. Standard therapy for glioblastoma multiforme consists of maximal surgical resection of the tumor, followed by radiotherapy between two and four weeks after the surgical procedure to remove the cancer, then by chemotherapy, such as temozolomide. Most patients with glioblastoma take a corticosteroid, typically dexamethasone, during their illness to relieve symptoms. Experimental treatments include targeted therapy, gamma knife radiosurgery, boron neutron capture therapy and gene therapy.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Prior to the development of chemotherapy regimens and hematopoietic stem cell transplant, children were surviving a median length of 3 months, largely due to either infection or bleeding. Since the advent of chemotherapy, prognosis for childhood leukemia has improved greatly and children with ALL are estimated to have a 95% probability of achieving a successful remission after 4 weeks of initiating treatment. Pediatric patients with ALL in developed countries have a greater than 80% five-year-survival rate. It is estimated that 60–80% of adults undergoing induction chemotherapy achieve complete remission after 4 weeks, and those over the age of 70 have a cure rate of 5%.
However, there are differing prognoses for ALL among individuals depending on a variety of factors: