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.
Pancreatic cancer
For locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinomas, which together represent over 80% of cases, numerous recent trials comparing chemotherapy regimes have shown increased survival times, but not to more than one year. Overall five-year survival for pancreatic cancer in the US has improved from 2% in cases diagnosed in 1975–77, and 4% in 1987–89 diagnoses, to 6% in 2003–09. In the less than 20% of cases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma with a diagnosis of a localized and small cancerous growth (less than 2 cm in Stage T1), about 20% of Americans survive to five years.