Redo craniotomy or bevacizumab for symptomatic steroid-refractory true or pseudoprogression following IMRT for glioblastoma.

Background: There is minimal evidence to support decision making for symptomatic steroid-refractory pseudoprogression or true progression occurring after intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for glioblastoma (GBM). This study audited the survival outcome of patients managed with redo craniotomy (RedoSx) or bevacizumab (BEV) for steroid-refractory mass effect after IMRT for GBM.

Methods: Patients with GBM managed between 2008 and 2019 with the EORTC-NCIC Protocol were entered into a prospective database.

Globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation as rescue therapy for refractory dyskinesias following effective subthalamic nucleus stimulation.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) at the subthalamic nucleus (STN) or globus pallidus internus (GPi) can effectively treat the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but dual implantation is rare. We report the first cases of additional GPi stimulation as rescue therapy for disabling dyskinesias following successful STN stimulation.

Methods: Two patients, initially treated with bilateral STN DBS, underwent subsequent bilateral GPi DBS after the development of refractory dyskinesias within 1 and 6 years of STN surgery.

The impact of molecular and clinical factors on patient outcome in oligodendroglioma from 20 years' experience at a single centre.

The increased chemosensitivity of oligodendroglial tumours has been associated with loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the p arm of chromosome 1 and the q arm of chromosome 19 (LOH 1p/19q). Other clinical and molecular factors have also been identified as being prognostic and predictive of treatment outcome. We reviewed 105 patients with oligodendroglioma treated at a single centre over 20 years.

Schwannomatosis, sporadic schwannomatosis, and familial schwannomatosis: a surgical series with long-term follow-up. Clinical article.

Object: The aim of this study was to provide disease-specific information about schwannomatosis in its different forms and to present 2 particular cases of malignant schwannomas in the context of familial schwannomatosis (FS).

Methods: The authors analyzed patients with pathologically defined schwannomas and identified those with varied forms of schwannomatosis. Each case was retrospectively analyzed for patient sex and age, number of operations and tumors excised, symptoms, location and size of tumors, extent of resection, nerve function pre- and postoperatively, complications, other nonsurgically treated tumors, malignancy, results of brain MR imaging, and follow-up data.

Post-contrast enhancement as a clinical indicator of prognosis in patients with anaplastic astrocytoma.

Diagnosis of an anaplastic astrocytoma (World Health Organization grade III) is associated with a highly variable prognosis. The identification of clinical markers that allow a more careful delineation of this prognostic spectrum is urgently needed. In this study, we analysed 48 patients with a histological diagnosis of anaplastic astrocytoma and found peritumoral post-gadolinium contrast enhancement to be a clear prognostic marker of poor prognosis.

Nuclear accumulation of e-cadherin correlates with loss of cytoplasmic membrane staining and invasion in pituitary adenomas.

Context: Loss of the cell adhesion protein E-cadherin is associated with invasion and metastasis in a number of malignancies. Recent studies have highlighted that loss of E-cadherin cell membrane expression may be accompanied by its detection in the nucleus, suggesting cellular redistribution during neoplasia. Pituitary tumors, although typically benign, may be locally invasive, and loss of membranous E-cadherin has been reported as a marker of invasion in prolactinomas.

Low O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) expression and response to temozolomide in aggressive pituitary tumours.

Context: Recent case reports detail the successful use of temozolomide in the management of aggressive pituitary tumours. O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is a DNA repair protein that counteracts the effect of temozolomide.

Objective: To study MGMT expression in pituitary tumours and consider whether MGMT expression is associated with response to temozolomide therapy in aggressive pituitary tumours.

Sylvian aqueduct syndrome with slit ventricles in shunted hydrocephalus due to adult aqueduct stenosis.

The authors report on 3 patients who developed sylvian aqueduct syndrome (SAS) in the context of shunt dysfunction and slit ventricles. All 3 patients had received shunts for adult onset hydrocephalus due to aqueduct stenosis and were stable for years before presenting with loss of upward gaze, convergence-retraction nystagmus, and slit ventricles, all due to shunt overdrainage. All 3 improved after either shunt revision or a third ventriculostomy procedure.

Loss of prostaglandin D2 synthase: a key molecular event in the transition of a low-grade astrocytoma to an anaplastic astrocytoma.

Reduction in the mRNA and protein expression of lipocalin-like prostaglandin D(2) (PGD(2)) synthase (PGDS), the main arachidonic acid metabolite produced in neurons and glial cells of the central nervous system, is a significant biological event involved in the malignant progression of astrocytomas and is predictive of poor survival. In vitro, the addition of the main PGDS metabolite, PGD(2), to A172 glioblastoma cells devoid of PGDS resulted in antiproliferative activity and cell death. In vitro PGD(2) substitution also enhanced the efficacy of cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors.

Wnt pathway inhibitors are strongly down-regulated in pituitary tumors.

The etiology of sporadic pituitary tumors is currently unknown. The Wnt pathways have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of human tumors, but the role of these pathways in pituitary tumors is unclear. Microarray analysis using the Affymetrix HG U133 plus 2.

Variation of O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation in serial samples in glioblastoma.

Methylation of the promoter region of the O ( 6 ) -methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene is known to be predictive of response to temozolomide treatment in patients with glioblastoma. Contrastingly, little is known about variation in the methylation status of the MGMT promoter after treatment or across different regions of the same tumor. About 22 samples from 10 patients who had undergone multiple resections of a glioblastoma were examined with promoter sequencing.

IQGAP1 and IGFBP2: valuable biomarkers for determining prognosis in glioma patients.

Clinical treatment decisions and the survival outcomes of patients with gliomas are directly impacted by accurate tumor classification. New and more reliable prognostic markers are needed to better identify the variable duration of survival among histologically defined glioma grades. Microarray expression analysis and immunohistochemistry were used to identify biomarkers associated with gliomas with more aggressive biologic behaviors.

The presence of necrosis and/or microvascular proliferation does not influence survival of patients with anaplastic oligodendroglial tumours: review of 98 patients.

Accurate prognosis for patients with anaplastic oligodendroglial gliomas is increasingly difficult to make. Characterisation of these tumours remains challenging, increasing proportions of oligodendroglial diagnoses in gliomas are reported, and no WHO 2000 grade IV exists for them, so that highly anaplastic tumours can only be grouped with glioblastoma (GBM) or with grade III oligodendroglioma, which have differing clinical behaviour. Longer survival times reported for patients with glioblastoma containing an oligodendroglial element (GBMO) suggest that a grade IV for oligodendroglial tumours might exist.