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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Surgical oncology for gliomas: the state of the art

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 15, pages 112–125 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Surgery remains the mainstay treatment of gliomas, with maximal resection of the tumour being central to achieving long-term disease control; growing evidence supports efforts to undertake more-extensive 'supratotal' resection

  • The real clinical benefit of glioma surgery depends, however, on the balance between the extent of cytoreduction and neurological morbidity; novel surgical techniques and technologies can be leveraged to improve both of these determinants of patient outcomes

  • Advanced intraoperative imaging methods (such as intraoperative neuronavigation, MRI, and ultrasonography), fluorescence-based tumour biomarkers, and real-time mutational analyses can be exploited to maximize tumour resection

  • In parallel, the risk of perioperative morbidity can be minimized through the combined use of corticospinal tract imaging (MRI-based diffusion tensor imaging tractography and transcranial magnetic stimulation), stimulation mapping, and/or somatosensory-evoked potential techniques

  • Together, these technological advances and modern principles of neurosurgical oncology have dramatically altered the approach to the treatment of patients with glioma and have enabled improvements in clinical outcomes

Abstract

Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment for patients with glioma of any grade. Maximal resection of the tumour is central to achieving long-term disease control; however, the relationship between the extent of glioma resection and actual clinical benefit for the patient is predicated on the balance between cytoreduction and neurological morbidity. For the neurosurgical oncologist, the clinical rationale for undertaking increasingly extensive resections has gained traction. In parallel, novel surgical techniques and technologies have been developed that help improve patient outcomes. During the past decade, neurosurgeons have leveraged advanced intraoperative imaging methods, fluorescence-based tumour biomarkers, and real-time mutational analyses to maximize the extent of tumour resection. In addition, approaches to minimizing the risk of perioperative morbidity continue to be improved through the combined use of stimulation-mapping techniques, corticospinal tract imaging, and stereotactic thermal ablation. Taken together, these modern principles of neurosurgical oncology bear little resemblance to historical therapeutic strategies for patients with glioma and have dramatically altered the approach to the treatment of patients with these brain tumours. Herein, we outline the state of the art in surgical oncology for gliomas.

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Figure 1: Brain shift and other artefactual effects during intraoperative MRI for brain tumour surgery.
Figure 2: A clinical case study demonstrating the use of intraoperative confocal microscopy for fluorescence-guided surgery.
Figure 3: Preoperative diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) mapping for neuronavigation.
Figure 4: Intraoperative cortical stimulation mapping and somatosensory phase-reversal techniques.
Figure 5: Negative language sites within the dominant hemisphere.
Figure 6: Laser ablation technologies for minimally invasive tumour targeting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurological Surgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, 350 West Thomas Road, Phoenix, 85013, Arizona, USA

    Nader Sanai

  2. Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, M-779, San Francisco, 94303, California, USA

    Mitchel S. Berger

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  1. Nader Sanai
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N.S. researched the data for the article. Both authors contributed to discussions of content and wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Mitchel S. Berger.

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Sanai, N., Berger, M. Surgical oncology for gliomas: the state of the art. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 15, 112–125 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.171

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