Primary Central Nervous System Tumors

This comprehensive, yet practical, text is a ready collection of the most up-to-date information on primary CNS tumors. Authored by a carefully selected group of the world’s leading clinicians and scientists, the book is divided into three sections. The opening chapters cover general principles, including epidemiology, pathogenesis, tumor stem cells, supportive care, complications of therapy, and quality of life. The remaining two sections are comprised of treatment-oriented chapters covering the spectrum of gliomas and rarer tumor types. Each of these chapters presents multi-disciplinary therapeutic approaches and addresses specific disease concerns. Throughout, the authors incorporate the cutting-edge advances in molecular biology and genomics that are revolutionizing neuro-oncology. The result is an important clinical resource which provides evidence-based data and interpretation essential to intelligent therapeutic decision making.

Though the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) tumors has been challenging, new advances have helped us better understand the molecular and genetic makeup of many tumor types, and new chemotherapies and immunotherapies have extended survival in patients with aggressive primary CNS tumors. This book discusses pediatric and adult tumors of the CNS, the classification schemes used to categorize them, advances in surgical techniques, and several important genetic alterations found in these tumors. We hope this book contributes to the reader’s understanding of these tumors and provides the most up-to-date and cutting-edge discoveries in this exciting field.

Since the late 1960s, the survival rate in children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer has steadily improved, with a corresponding decline in the cancer-specific death rate. Although the improvements in survival are encouraging, they have come at the cost of acute, chronic, and late adverse effects precipitated by the toxicities associated with the individual or combined use of different types of treatment (e.g., surgery, radiation, chemotherapy). In some cases, the impairments resulting from cancer and its treatment are severe enough to qualify a child for U.S. Social Security Administration disability benefits. At the request of Social Security Administration, Childhood Cancer and Functional Impacts Across the Care Continuum provides current information and findings and conclusions regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of selected childhood cancers, including different types of malignant solid tumors, and the effect of those cancers on childrenâ (TM)s health and functional capacity, including the relative levels of functional limitation typically associated with the cancers and their treatment. This report also provides a summary of selected treatments currently being studied in clinical trials and identifies any limitations on the availability of these treatments, such as whether treatments are available only in certain geographic areas.

Central nervous system (CNS) tumors are a heterogeneous group consisting of more than 100 tumor types originating from the brain, cerebellum, brain stem, spinal cord, and meninges. Despite the positive developments of recent years, especially in the treatment of high-grade brain tumors, treatment outcomes have not yet reached an acceptable level. However, due to advances in clinical and experimental studies, the genetic and molecular structures of many high-grade CNS tumors are now better understood. The World Health Organization’s 2021 Classification of CNS Tumors has aided the understanding of the genetic, molecular and immunological structures of these tumors as well as their interactions with their microenvironment. Targeted therapies and vaccines developed with immunotherapy protocols are promising developments. This book explores the natural history of CNS tumors and discusses relevant treatment protocols.

A novel concept that is reviewed and discussed in several chapters in the book alludes to the transport of drugs bound to red blood cells into the highly vascular CNS tumors - both primary and metastatic. Such a transport mechanism is unique and of significant therapeutic potential. It is hopeful that the novel information presented in this book will result in new approaches to the treatment CNS tumors.

The second edition of this concise reference book was prepared by 106 authors from 21 countries and covers the neuro-oncological literature until January 2000. Diagnostic criteria, pathological features and associated genetic alterations are described in a strictly disease-oriented manner. Sections on more than 70 neoplasms and their variants include ICD-O codes, incidence, age and sex distribution, location, clinical signs and symptoms, pathology, genetics and predictive factors. New disease entities include the chordoid glioma of the third ventricle and the cerebellar liponeurocytoma. Inherited tumor syndromes involving the nervous system are dealt with in a separate chapter, combining diagnostic criteria, pathology and genetics.

With treatment approaches and the field of neuro-oncology neuroimaging changing rapidly, this third edition of the Handbook of Neuro-Oncology Neuroimaging is very relevant to those in the field, providing a single-source, comprehensive, reference handbook of the most up-to-date clinical and technical information regarding the application of neuroimaging techniques to brain tumor and neuro-oncology patients. This new volume will have updates on all of the material from the second edition, and in addition features several new important chapters covering diverse topics such as imaging for the use of Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy, advanced imaging techniques in radiation therapy, therapeutic treatment fields, response assessment in clinical trials, surgical planning of neoplastic disease of the spine, and more. Sections first overview neuro-oncological disorders before delving into the physics and basic science of neuroimaging and great focus on CT and MRI. The book then focuses on advances in the neuroimaging of brain tumors and neuroimaging of specific tumor types. There is also discussion of neuroimaging of other neuro-oncological syndromes. This book will serve as a resource of background information to neuroimaging researchers and basic scientists with an interest in brain tumors and neuro-oncology. Summarizes translational research on brain imaging for brain tumors Discusses limitations of neuroimaging for diagnosis and treatment Presents advanced imaging technologies, including CT, MRI, and PET Contains new coverage on Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy, radiation therapy, clinical trials, and more