Therapeutic vaccination against autologous cancer stem cells with mRNA-transfected dendritic cells in patients with glioblastoma.

Background: The growth and recurrence of several cancers appear to be driven by a population of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain tumor, is invariably fatal, with a median survival of approximately 1 year. Although experimental data have suggested the importance of CSCs, few data exist regarding the potential relevance and importance of these cells in a clinical setting.

Prognostic variables in oligodendroglial tumors: a single-institution study of 95 cases.

We analyzed the relationships among clinical variables, histology, 1p/19q status, and outcome in 95 patients with oligodendroglial tumors. The study enrolled adult patients who underwent first-time surgery for a supratentorial oligodendroglial tumor at Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet. Tumors were: 27 oligodendrogliomas, WHO grade II; 32 oligoastrocytomas, WHO grade II; 16 anaplastic oligodendrogliomas, WHO grade III; 14 anaplastic oligoastrocytomas, WHO grade III; and 6 glioblastomas with a major oligodendroglial component, WHO grade IV.

Radiological and clinical assessment of long-term brain tumour survivors after radiotherapy.

Background And Purpose: Late adverse effects of therapeutic brain radiotherapy (RT) may develop after long latency periods and our objective was to assess long-term brain tumour survivors following RT to large partial brain volumes.

Materials And Methods: Assessment of MRI, SOMA/LENT score, quality of life and neuroendocrine function was performed in 33 adult brain tumour patients 6-25 years following RT. Fraction dose was 1.

Progress in long-term survival in adult patients with supratentorial low-grade gliomas: a population-based study of 993 patients in whom tumors were diagnosed between 1970 and 1993.

Object: The goal of this study was to document and compare long-term survival during the periods 1970 through 1981 and 1982 through 1993 in all adult patients in Norway with histologically verified supratentorial low-grade gliomas (LGGs).

Methods: Nine hundred ninety-three patients 15 to 69 years of age were found to have a primary supratentorial diffuse astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, oligoastrocytoma, or pilocytic astrocytoma. Survival time was analyzed in all patients and, in a subset of 451 patients, the influence of new imaging methods on the time from symptom onset to imaging diagnosis was estimated.

Late radiation effects on hearing, vestibular function, and taste in brain tumor patients.

Purpose: To investigate late radiation effects on hearing, vestibular function, and taste after conventional radiotherapy in brain tumor patients.

Methods And Materials: Hearing, vestibular function, and taste were assessed in 33 brain tumor patients irradiated unilaterally to the tumor-bearing hemisphere and the temporal bone. Median observation time after completion of radiotherapy was 13 years; the fraction dose was 1.

A cost-minimising analysis of standard radiotherapy and two experimental therapies in glioblastoma.

Background And Purpose: Accelerated radiotherapy (ART) and intracavity brachytherapy (ICBT) have been introduced in the primary treatment of glioblastoma. Our objective was to determine total treatment costs, hospitalisation time, and treatment outcome in these two experimental therapies compared to standard treatment.

Materials And Methods: In the time period 1985 to 1st May 1999, a total of 174 patients with histologically confirmed glioblastoma multiforme were given postoperative radiotherapy according to three different treatment schedules at three different time intervals.