FUTURE-GB: functional and ultrasound-guided resection of glioblastoma - a two-stage randomised control trial.

Introduction: Surgery remains the mainstay for treatment of primary glioblastoma, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Current standard of care during surgery involves the intraoperative use of image-guidance and 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA). There are multiple other surgical adjuncts available to the neuro-oncology surgeon.

Structural connectome quantifies tumour invasion and predicts survival in glioblastoma patients.

Glioblastoma is characterized by diffuse infiltration into the surrounding tissue along white matter tracts. Identifying the invisible tumour invasion beyond focal lesion promises more effective treatment, which remains a significant challenge. It is increasingly accepted that glioblastoma could widely affect brain structure and function, and further lead to reorganization of neural connectivity.

Utility of 5-ALA for resection of CNS tumours other than high-grade gliomas: a protocol for a systematic review.

Introduction: 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is a proagent developed for fluorescent-guided surgery for high-grade glioma patients associated with a significant increase in resection conferring survival. 5-ALA was shown to penetrate the blood-brain barrier accumulating in malignant glioma cells with high selectivity, sensitivity and positive predictive value. However, those have yet to be explored aiding diagnosis for tumours of the central nervous system (CNS) other than high-grade gliomas (HGG).

Radiological tumor classification across imaging modality and histology.

Radiomics refers to the high-throughput extraction of quantitative features from radiological scans and is widely used to search for imaging biomarkers for prediction of clinical outcomes. Current radiomic signatures suffer from limited reproducibility and generalizability, because most features are dependent on imaging modality and tumor histology, making them sensitive to variations in scan protocol. Here, we propose novel radiological features that are specially designed to ensure compatibility across diverse tissues and imaging contrast.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on surgical neuro-oncology multi-disciplinary team decision making: a national survey (COVID-CNSMDT Study).

Objectives: Pressures on healthcare systems due to COVID-19 has impacted patients without COVID-19 with surgery disproportionally affected. This study aims to understand the impact on the initial management of patients with brain tumours by measuring changes to normal multidisciplinary team (MDT) decision making.

Design: A prospective survey performed in UK neurosurgical units performed from 23 March 2020 until 24 April 2020.

A systematic review of cognitive function in patients with glioblastoma undergoing surgery.

Background: Patients with glioblastoma (GB) are more likely to suffer cognitive deficits with poor quality of life as compared with lower-grade glioma patient groups, for whom cognition research is plentiful. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the cognitive function of patients with GB before and after surgery.

Methods: This review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO.

Semi-automated construction of patient individualised clinical target volumes for radiotherapy treatment of glioblastoma utilising diffusion tensor decomposition maps.

Objectives: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly infiltrative primary brain tumour with an aggressive clinical course. Diffusion tensor imaging (DT-MRI or DTI) is a recently developed technique capable of visualising subclinical tumour spread into adjacent brain tissue. Tensor decomposition through and maps can be used for planning of treatment.

Ventricle contact is associated with lower survival and increased peritumoral perfusion in glioblastoma.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate outcome and differences in peritumoral MRI characteristics of glioblastomas (GBMs) that were in contact with the ventricles (ventricle-contacting tumors) and those that were not (noncontacting tumors). GBMs are heterogeneous tumors with variable survival. Lower survival is suggested for patients with ventricle-contacting tumors than for those with noncontacting tumors.