Glioma ; pathology ; Humans ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; pathology

Brain Neoplasms ; pathology ; Glioma ; pathology ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male

The treatment of gliomas is highly individualized. Surgery for gliomas is essentially for histological diagnosis, to alleviate mass effect, and most importantly, to favor longer survival expectancy. During the past two decades, many surgical techniques and adjuvants have been applied to glioma surgery in China, which lead to a rapid development in the field of cerebral glioma surgery. This article broadly and critically reviewed the existing studies on cerebral glioma surgery and to portrait the current status of glioma surgery in China. A literature search was conducted covering major innovative surgical techniques and adjuvants for glioma surgery in China. The following databases were searched: the Pubmed (January 1995 to date); China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (January 1995 to date) and VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (January 1995 to date). A selection criterion was established to exclude duplicates and irrelevant studies. The outcome measures were extracted from included studies. A total of 3307 articles were initially searched. After excluded by abstracts and full texts, 69 studies conducted in the mainland of China were included and went through further analysis. The philosophy of surgical strategies for cerebral gliomas in China is undergoing tremendous change. Nowadays Chinese neurosurgeons pay more attention to the postoperative neurofunctional status of the patients. The aim of the glioma surgery is not only the more extensive tumor resection but also the maximal safety of intervention. The well balance of longer overall survival and higher quality of life should be judged with respect to each individual patient.
China ; Glioma ; pathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neurosurgery

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to compare the frequency of postoperative epilepsies of patients with chronic as opposed to recent onset epilepsy due to glial tumors in the frontal or temporal lobe with the hypothesis that patients with chronic epilepsy do worse. METHODS: We compared the clinical and diagnostic characteristics of the patients(n=73) who had seizures preoperatively to those of the patients(n=153) who did not. Among those who have had seizures preoperatively, we compared those(n=32, chronic seizure group) who had seizures a year or more prior to surgery to those(n=41, acute seizure group) who had seizures within a year prior to surgery. RESULTS: Among the various factors, the frequency of benign pathology and favorable neurological state were higher in seizure group than in non-seizure group(p<0.05). Complex partial seizure and low-grade tumors were frequent in chronic seizure group, whereas simple partial seizure and high-grade tumors were frequent in acute seizure group. Seizure-free rate was significantly higher in acute seizure group than in chronic one(p<0.05). Also, the difference of seizure control rate between surgical strategies were statistically significant(p<0.05). CONCLUSION: This study indicates that preoperative seizure durations and frequencies have a close relationship with the frequency of postoperative epilepsy of glial tumors. A longer lapse may allow the formation of epileptogenic foci, leading to chronic epilepsy, and eventually having a negative effect on the prognosis of the patients. Factors including histopathological characteristics of the tumor, its location, seizure duration/frequency, and semiology should be taken account of deciding on surgical strategies.
Brain Neoplasms ; Epilepsy* ; Glioma ; Humans ; Pathology ; Prognosis ; Seizures ; Temporal Lobe

Patients afflicted with low-grade glioma frequently suffer from seizures. The mechanisms for seizure initiation in these patients remain poorly understood. Tumor location is correlated with seizure initiation. However, these correlative studies rely on dichotomized data analysis which is based on arbitrary lobe assignments. As a result, the lesion-symptom correlation may be incorrectly interpreted. Categorizing patients according to tumor involvement in a single brain lobe might cause the neglect of important information, such as lesion location and lesion volume. Tumors that invaded more than one brain lobe may could be counted repeatedly. The anatomic correlation of the tumor-induced seizures is therefore difficult to be identified. Investigations based on voxel-wise quantitative lesion analysis could avoid the above statistical bias. According to the voxel-wise analysis, the increased seizure risks were identified for patients with low-grade gliomas that involved the left premotor area.
Brain ; pathology ; Brain Neoplasms ; complications ; pathology ; Glioma ; complications ; pathology ; Humans ; Seizures ; etiology

Humans ; Child ; Glioma/pathology* ; Brain Neoplasms/pathology* ; World Health Organization ; Mutation ; Central Nervous System Neoplasms/pathology*

Female ; Glioma ; pathology ; Humans ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal ; pathology ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; pathology ; Peritoneal Neoplasms ; pathology ; Teratoma ; pathology

Not all cancer cells are born equal. While the great majority of the cells that make up tumours are destined to differentiate, albeit aberrantly, and eventually stop dividing, a handful of cancer cells appear to possess limitless replicative potential. This review presents compelling evidence to suggest that the bulk of malignant cells of most cancers are generated by a rare fraction of stem cell-like cancer cells. These cells, dubbed cancer stem cells, are phenotypically similar to the normal stem cells of the corresponding tissue of origin, but they exhibit dysfunctional patterns of self-renewal and differentiation. Cancer stem cells that are capable of recapitulating brain tumours as xenografts in mice are characterised by defined stem cell markers. These brain tumour stem cells demonstrate enhanced chemoresistance and radioresistance mechanisms compared to non-stem cells in the heterogeneous tumour, which suggest that they may be the likely candidates for tumour progression and recurrence. Indeed, recent work has shown that such aberrant signalling pathways may be targeted in novel anti-cancer therapeutic strategies. The stem cell concept of tumour progression prompts immediate attention to a new paradigm in cancer research with a focus on this minority subset of cells, and the design of novel therapeutic strategies to target these cells that are insignificant within the population of tumour cells, but that are in fact the relevant cells to be destroyed.
Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; Glioma ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; Humans ; Models, Biological ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; drug effects ; pathology ; Singapore

At present, an effective detecting method for brain function impairment for the patients with the glioma is urgently needed in clinic, because it may help us understand its pathogenesis. This paper proposes a method of combining diffusion tensor tracing technology and 'small world' network. It utilizes the degree of brain function network to study complex network topological properties of the patients with the glioma in temporal lobe area. The experimental results showed that the brain networks of the patients with the glioma of different grades were destroyed compared with those of the normal persons, but the destruction degree is independent of the tumor grades. The distribution of functional connections is index truncated power-law accompanied by significant heterogeneity. Meanwhile, the stronger functional areas of information in the glioma have transferred and there exists lack of language function area and sensory function area.
Brain ; physiopathology ; Diffusion Tensor Imaging ; Glioma ; pathology ; Humans ; White Matter ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo establish malignant progression associated gene expression profiles in human brain glioma.

METHODSThe primary (WHO grade II), recurrent (WHO grade III) and re-recurrent (WHO grade IV) glioma specimens were sequentially collected from one single patient. Gene expression of different tumor specimens and normal brain tissue of the same patient was compared by microarrary techniques.

RESULTS197 differentially expressed genes with differential ratio > or = 3 were observed when compared with normal brain tissue. When the specimens (3 tumor, 1 normal brain) were paired with each other, 7 groups containing 489 genes (upregulated 193, downregulated 296) were observed. According to the descending frequency of the 109 genes with known function, they were the genes associated with development, metabolism, differentiation, signal transduction, DNA binding transcription, cellular receptor, immunity, ion-channel transportation, protein translation, cell backbone motion, stress, protooncogene and anti-oncogene and cell apoptosis, respectively.

CONCLUSIONFrom the 197 differentially expressed genes found in one glioma patient experiencing tumor malignant progression, 17 genes screened out by bioinformatics assay, may offer valuable information on molecular mechanisms on genesis and malignant progression of glioma.