Ebook: High-Grade Gliomas: Diagnosis and Treatment

This is truly an exciting time in the field of neuro-oncology, particularly in the area of hi- grade gliomas. The management of patients with high-grade gliomas has historically been one of the most challenging and disheartening fields in medicine, where failure is the rule and longevity is the exception. The jaded often state that despite purported advances in surgical and radiotherapeutic techniques and a myriad of clinical trials of medical therapies, the s- vival statistics for glioblastoma have not changed in the last three decades. The nihilism associated with these tumors is such that some practitioners still advise against treatment or even biopsy, recommending palliative care with the diagnosis based only on history and an MRI scan. If the current state-of-the-art in the diagnosis and management of high-grade gliomas was truly so bleak, there would be no reason to compile and publish a monograph on the subject. The fact is that we have recently entered an era where real progress is being made in our understanding and treatment of high-grade gliomas that is directly benefiting some patients. We are slowly but surely chipping away at this problem. One approach has exploited correlations between particular molecular markers and therapeutic response. The first such “breakthrough” in high-grade glioma was the observation that loss of chromosomes 1p and 19q uniformly predict chemosensitivity in anaplastic oligodendrogliomas (1).

---

Leaders in the field provide the latest information on the diagnosis and management of high-grade gliomas in this new groundbreaking text. The entire spectrum of issues pertaining to high-grade gliomas is covered, from the basics of clinical characteristics and management to the state-of-the-art in diagnosis and therapeutics. Forefront areas of clinical investigation are also covered with the promise of leading us to the treatments of tomorrow. The authors evaluate the latest molecular diagnostic techniques and their use with current histology. They later explore the most current imaging techniques for the diagnosis and monitoring of treatment, as well as the latest treatment strategies including surgery, radiation, and cytotoxic chemotherapy. All physicians treating brain tumors including neurosurgeons, neurologists and radiation oncologists will benefit from the coverage herein of the meaningful advances in our understanding of the biology of high-grade gliomas that are now leading to better, more rational, patient-specific treatments.