Combination therapy with Gamma Knife radiosurgery and antisense EGFR for malignant glioma in vitro and orthotopic xenografts.

Accumulating evidence has indicated that epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway plays a potentially important role in mediating radiation resistance in human gliomas. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of combination therapy with Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKR) and antisense EGFR for malignant glioma in vitro and orthotopic xenografts. GKR and down-regulation of EGFR expression by antisense EGFR resulted in significant suppression of cell proliferation and induction of cell apoptosis in vitro. Moreover, the growth of the C6 glioma in orthotopic xenografts was significantly inhibited by this combination treatment. Thus, our results indicate that down-regulation of EGFR expression enhanced the radiosensitivity of glioma and GKR in combination with antisense EGFR is a potential strategy for glioma therapy.