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.
Glioma
Patients with glioma carrying mutations in either "IDH1" or "IDH2" have a relatively favorable survival, compared with patients with glioma with wild-type "IDH1/2" genes. In WHO grade III glioma, "IDH1/2"-mutated glioma have a median prognosis of ~3.5 years, whereas "IDH1/2" wild-type glioma perform poor with a median overall survival of c. 1.5 years. In glioblastoma, the difference is larger. There, "IDH1/2" wild-type glioblastoma have a median overall survival of 1 year, whereas "IDH1/2"-mutated glioblastoma have a median overall survival of more than 3 years.