Tumor biological characteristics of Vestibular Schwannoma

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the biological background of progression of sporadic vestibular schwannomas. The results of our studies indicate that, in different ways, intratumoral inflammation seems to be important in the clinical progression of these tumors. By stimulating angiogenesis and through inhibition of antitumor immune responses tumor associated macrophages may allow some tumors to progress faster and reach a larger volume.

M-CSF and IL-34 may play a regulatory role when it comes to macrophage activity within vestibular schwannomas, thereby potentially making them targets for therapy. These outcomes must be interpreted with caution. It is important to note that the results of the comparisons we made are observations of association. There is always the possibility that these findings are epiphenomena of a larger biological growth process and therefore not directly related to one another.

In the search for new drugs capable of targeting tumor biological factors involved in the progression of vestibular schwannomas it is important to realize that our findings also indicate that these tumors may be protected by barrier proteins such as BCRP.