Additive antineoplastic effects of PPARgamma activation and radiation on glioma cells

Despite continual progress in medical research, the prognosis of patients suffering from glioblastoma multiforme has not remarkably improved over the past decades. Recent clinical studies implicate, that a combination of radiation and temozolomide chemotherapy moderately increases survival. Since agonists of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg) exhibit antineoplastic effects in a variety of tumors, including glioma, we investigated whether the PPARg agonist pioglitazone (PIO), a member of the thiazolidinedione (TZD) group of antidiabetic drugs, exerts synergistic antitumoral effects when…