Nanomedicine in Brain Tumors.

Abstract Malignant gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults up to an extent of 78% of all primary malignant brain tumors. It is now generally accepted that the modulation of gene expression may be the most effective modality to control specific genes functions. Nanotechnology in biomedical research has quickly found its own niche in clinical methodologies including imaging, diagnostic, and therapeutics. Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology which is used to prevent and treatment of diseases at molecular scale. Nanoparticle systems in cancer therapies provide better penetration of therapeutic and diagnostic agents, and a reduced risk in comparison to conventional treatments. Nanomedicine could lead to new possibilities to overcome important problems in malignant brain tumors, such as the not specificity of cancer cells drug-delivering and targeting, the partial passage of drugs, molecules and genetic materials into cancer cells avoiding side effects in normal tissue. In this chapter we describe the principal applications of nanomedicine in brain tumor treatment. Finally, we will report various preclinical and/or clinical studies in brain tumor treatment.