Updates on glioblastoma multiforme: From epidemiology to imaging and artificial intelligence

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are the most aggressive and common tumors in the central nervous system. GBM are classified as grade IV according to the World Health Organization. The incidence of GBM slightly differs among countries. The etiology of GBM has not been entirely clarified. No risk factors such as smoking, chemicals or dietary can be identified for GBM. Only the exposure to high radiation dose such as radiotherapy of head and neck cancers have been reported to increase the risk of glioma tumors. In this review, the authors attempted to cover several aspects of GBM. This review was based on a collection of recent publications from different research fields but all related to GBM in order to shed the light on this disease. We highlighted the current insights of GBM in the aspects of epidemiology, pathogenesis, etiology, molecular genetics, imaging technologies, artificial intelligence and treatment. A literature review was conducted for GBM with relevant keywords. Although GBM was known since several decades, its causes are still confounding, and its early detection is often unpredictable. Since the hereditary aspect of GBM is very low, there remains as the common symptoms the interference with normal brain function, memory loss, unusual behavior, headaches and seizures. The progress in GBM treatment is not satisfactory even with the deployment of huge efforts and financial costs in many domains like gene therapy, surgery and chemoradiotherapy. Despite the rapid developments of the standard treatment for GBM, the trend of survival rate did not change among years.