Onkológia 3/2007

NEW TRENDS IN SURGICAL TRETAMENT OF BRAIN TUMOURS

Progress in surgical treatment of extraaxial brain tumours growing from the meninges, the cranial nerves, and other structures at the sufrace of the brain was brought in past by introduction of the computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging into clinical practice and by microsurgical operative techniques. In patients with intraaxial tumours the microsurgical techniques came into routine use later. Its introduction together with improvement of magnetic resonance imaging by introducing new imaging modalities enabled gross total removal of intracerebral tumours in eloquent brain areas. Radical resection has prolonged survival rate in high grade gliomas (WHO grade III, IV) and improved the outcome in low grade gliómas (WHO grade II) to a degree promising a breakthrough in prognosis. Some studies brought substantial increase of the survival rate and also the conditions for avoiding the recurrences and dedifferentiation which at present occur in great majority of cases.

Keywords: cerebral gliomas, radical surgery.