Contents

#### **Preface XI**


Chapter 3 **Spatial Relationships of MR Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography with Phenotype, Genotype and Tumor Stem Cell Generation in Glioblastoma Multiforme 63** Davide Schiffer, Consuelo Valentini, Antonio Melcarne, Marta Mellai, Elena Prodi, Giovanna Carrara, Tetyana Denysenko, Carola Junemann, Cristina Casalone, Cristiano Corona, Valentina Caldera, Laura Annovazzi, Angela Piazzi, Paola Cassoni, Rebecca Senetta, Piercarlo Fania and Angelina Cistaro


Preface

topics in neurooncology.

*Undergo the required activation or metabolism*

*the proper way to therapy – with death'!*

will:

*Be absorbed Be absorbed*

*Enter the cancer cell*

*Target a bio-sensitive site*

The treatment of malignancies involving the central nervous system – primary, as well as meta‐ static, has improved in recent years, however, the long term responses are still depressing.

The causes for the paucity of useful chemotherapeutic agents have been due to a reluctance

Thus, the knowledge of anti-cancer drug pharmacology in the brain is lagging. *Tumors of the Central Nervous System – Primary and Secondary* presents a concerted effort to appreciate the relationships between the pathophysiology of malignancies growing in the brain, the func‐ tions of the blood brain barrier (BBB), tolerance of the brain to potential new drugs, and new imaging techniques. Neurooncology has been a sleeping giant and finally the neurosur‐ geons, neuropharmacologists, neuro-oncologists, neuro-physiologists and the medicinal chemists are all working together to identify novel, safe and effective anticancer agents and procedures to treat CNS tumors. Plus the FDA's Orphan Designated Drug program has cre‐ ated an incentive for pharmaceutical industry involvement. Maybe we can *'catch up'* .

Every chapter in "*Tumors of the Central Nervous System – Primary and Secondary* " is an exam‐ ple of neuro-collaborations and contains new approaches, in-depth discussions and/or re‐ views of diagnostic and therapeutic concepts that will improve the management of key

Neurooncology is still an *empirical subspecialty* when it comes to selecting treatment plans or cancer chemotherapy. We continue to face the *age old question* from patients and families during the treatment process – *will the patient respond, not when a response will occur* . This is often based on the fact that we lack the ability to predict whether or not a drug or drugs

*and* , if all the required pharmacological criteria are met, in fact *'will the cancer cell respond in*

*Tumors of the Central Nervous System – Primary and Secondary* is designed to integrate con‐ cepts in surgery, diagnostic imaging, radiation and molecular pharmacology with results

from empirical trials to promote our advancement on current neurooncology issues.

to enroll patients with advanced CNS cancer in new clinical trials.


Lee Roy Morgan, Andrew H. Rodgers, Gerard Bastian, Edmund Benes, William S. Waud, Christopher Papagiannis, Dan Krietlow, Branko S. Jursic, Robert F. Struck, Gerald LaHoste, Melissa Thornton, Melody Luttrell, Edward Stevens and Rodger Thompson
