Blood Brain Barrier: A Challenge for Effectual Therapy of Brain Tumors

Table 1

Type of common brain cancers and their BBB status.

Type of brain tumors		Origin	Involvement of BBB	Status of BBB
Primary	Astrocytomas
	Pilocytic; astrocytoma; (grade I)	Usually from astrocytes of cerebellum	Yes	Not well formed
	Fibrillary/mixed oligo; astrocytoma; (grade II)	From neoplastic astrocytes	Yes	Mostly intact
	Anaplastic astrocytoma (grade III)	From brain astrocytes which infiltrate through white matter of cerebral hemisphere, dura, and spinal fluid	Yes	Altered or disrupted
	Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) (grade IV)	From glial cells	Yes	Altered or disrupted
	Oligodendrogliomas	From oligodendrocytes and glial precursor cells	Yes	Mostly intact
	Ependymomas	From ependyma	Yes	Intact
	Meningiomas	From meninges of brain and central nervous system	No	—
	Schwannomas	From Schwann cells	No	—
	Craniopharyngiomas	From pituitary gland embryonic tissue	Yes	Intact or disrupted
	Germinomas	Germ cell tumors from pineal gland	No	—
	Medulloblastomas	From cerebellum, below the tentorium of brain	Yes	Intact
	Pineocytoma	From pineal parenchyma	No	—
	Pineoblastoma	From pineal parenchyma	No	—
Secondary	Different metastatic cancers to brain	From cancers like breast, lung, bowel, kidney, ovary, and skin	Yes	Intact or disrupted