Hitting a Moving Target: Glioma Stem Cells Demand New Approaches in Glioblastoma Therapy.

Background: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) continues to devastate patients and outfox investigators and clinicians despite the preponderance of research directed at its biology, pathogenesis and therapeutic advances. GBM routinely outlasts multidisciplinary treatment protocols, almost inevitably recurring in a yet more aggressive and resistant form with distinct genetic differences from the original tumor. Attempts to glean further insight into GBM point increasingly toward a subpopulation of cells with a stem-like phenotype.

Measuring surgical outcomes in cervical spondylotic myelopathy patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: assessment of minimum clinically important difference.

Object: The concept of minimum clinically important difference (MCID) has been used to measure the threshold by which the effect of a specific treatment can be considered clinically meaningful. MCID has previously been studied in surgical patients, however few studies have assessed its role in spinal surgery. The goal of this study was to assess the role of MCID in patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM).