Malignant Brain Tumours

Malignant brain tumours remain a not uncommon cause of disability and premature death, particularly in children and middle-aged adults. This is only too weIl known by those con- cerned with the dinical management of such patients. Thus, not onlyare malignant cerebral gliomas very aggressive tumours, usually associated with a rapidly fatal outcome, but also it has been recognised more recently that low grade gliomas often have a poor prognosis. Furthermore, the increased application of non-invasive neuroradiological imaging to patients with other types of tumour has disdosed an even larger number of metastatic brain tumours than has been recognised previously. In the last decade, the spectrum of malignant brain tumours has been further widened by the ons et of tumours related to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Nevertheless, all is not gloom, and within the community of life-science profes- sionals in the neuro-oncological specialities, both scientific and dinicaI, there is some optimism that matters, albeit slowly, will change for the better. This hope is based largely on the realis- ation that large amounts of pertinent information exist about the biology of these tumours at molecular and cellular levels. It is also based on the ability to image them by eT and MR methods, often at an early stage in the disease, as well as on the capacity to achieve accurate histopathological correlation with the diagnostic imaging. Thus, the necessary prerequisites for the optimum treatment of these diseases by surgery, by radiation, and by drug treatment exist.