Despite longstanding and earnest endeavors to develop new remedies, the prognosis of most glioblastoma patients undergoing chemotherapies and radiotherapies remains poor. Glioblastoma, a malignant glioma, has a median survival period of approximately 15 months. One of the reasons for this is the lack of methods to eradicate its cancer stem cells, or glioblastoma-initiating cells (GICs), that demonstrate tumorigenicity (ability to form tumors) and resistance to chemotherapies and radiotherapies.
