Prospects of Drug Therapy of Vestibular Schwannoma

Vestibular schwannoma (VS) is one of the most common types of benign tumors of the central nervous system. At present, the prevailing treatment methods of VS include surgery, stereotactic radiotherapy, and follow-up observation, etc. However, there is still no drug therapy available for treating VS. Although the surgical technique is relatively mature, the complications cannot be completely avoided. Furthermore, both the growth rate of different cases and patients’ sensitivity to radiotherapy vary greatly. With the constant progress made in molecular biology research, most of the studies on the growth mechanism of VS focus on the upstream and downstream of neurofibromin 2 (NF2) gene and merlin protein, and a number of corresponding targets, including receptor protein tyrosine kinase (RTK), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR). It has been reported in some studies that quite a few drugs could inhibit the proliferation of VS cells. Most of the studies are still in the stage of in vitro cell experiment and/or animal experiment. A small number of studies have entered phase Ⅰ and phase Ⅱ clinical trials, but have not led to any clinical treatment yet. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the current status and the prospects of drug therapies of VS, which is conducive to the development of subsequent research.