Anti-angiogenic agents for the treatment of brain tumors.

It is accepted that novel therapeutic approaches are needed for the majority of patients with malignant brain tumors. The vascularity of many primary brain tumors and the encouraging preclinical studies suggest that antiangiogenic agents have the potential to become an important component of multimodality treatment of patients with brain tumors. The understanding of the biology of angiogenesis is improving rapidly, offering the hope for more specific vascular targeting of brain tumor neovasculature. Neuroimaging techniques evaluating the angiogenic process and the impact of antiangiogenic agents will be an important tool for the rapid development of these novel therapeutic agents.