**5. Concludig remarks and future perspectives**

In summary, we presented an overview of the fundamentals and clinical applications of advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging protocols providing in situ information on water diffusion and blood perfusion in gliomas. These methodologies have shown considerable ability to provide functional information on the malignancy of these lesions as well as in its response to therapy. Together, they allow for a more adequate patient management based fully in non invasive non destructive examinations. These MRI approaches have been, however, applied independently in most cases. The future use of combinations of these two strategies may offer the possibility to compensate the limitations of one technology with the strengths of the other, still maintaining their non invasive character. In this sense, combined diffusion-perfusion methodologies may provide in the future significant advances, becoming even more effective in clinic for the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy assessment of gliomas.
