Published in CNS oncology
Avascular necrosis (AVN) is a rare but serious adverse event associated with the use of corticosteroids for long durations or at high doses. This case report describes a 47-year-old female patient with low-grade astrocytoma who was initiated on low-dose dexamethasone for symptom management. The patient developed joint pain 1 year after steroid expo...
Published in CNS Oncology
Central nervous system germinomas can often be diagnosed with tumor markers and imaging, and they may not always need a biopsy. A criterion for clinical diagnosis is elucidated in this retro study. Is secreting germinoma a new entity? #germinoma #cnsoncology #btsm.
Published in CNS oncology
Lay abstract Purpose: Data are lacking regarding outcomes of patients with primary brain tumors (PBTs) admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), which may it difficult for ICU providers to know who of these patients will best benefit from ICU-level care. We aimed to describe our patient population to contribute to the limited data. Methods: We perf...
Published in CNS oncology
Lay abstract Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive cancer with less than 6% of patients surviving at 2 years from diagnosis. Patients with hypermethylation of the MGMT gene promoter have improved survival compared with those with unmethylated MGMT. There is considerable debate regarding the ideal cutoff value for calling MGMT promoter hypermethylated...
Published in CNS Oncology
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults. Histones are molecules around which DNA winds. GBM and other gliomas sometimes have genetic alterations called mutations in histone genes. Of these, a specific alteration in histone 3 called H3K27M has been described in a variety of primary brain tumors. In ad...
Published in CNS Oncology
Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients with methylated MGMT GBM had better overall survival compared with unmethylated MGMT (median: 25.5 vs 12.4 months). However, so did patients who were tested for MGMT methylation compared with those untested for MGMT methylation (median: 18.1 vs 11.8 months).
Published in CNS oncology
Lay abstract Glioblastoma is the deadliest and most common form of brain tumor, for which there is no cure. It is very difficult to deliver medicine to the tumor cells, because they spread out widely into the normal brain, and local blood vessels represent a barrier that most medicines cannot cross. It was shown, in many studies over the last 20 ye...
Published in CNS oncology
Diffuse midline gliomas with H3 K27M mutations are a particularly aggressive form of primary glial brain tumors. They are most commonly found in children and young adults. Here, we present the unusual case of a diffuse midline glioma with H3 K27M mutation in an 83-year-old woman. To our knowledge, this is the oldest reported patient with this disea...
Published in CNS Oncology
Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors. The majority of meningiomas are benign, but they can present different grades of dedifferentiation from grade I to grade III (anaplastic/malignant) that are associated with different outcomes. Radiological surveillance is a valid option for low-grade asymptomatic meningiomas. In other cas...
Published in CNS Oncology
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) reveals novel mutations in a collision tumor of GBM and meningioma. NGS has the potential to yield insight into molecular drivers of intracranial tumors and identify therapeutic targets.
