Michael D. Walker - Böcker

Where do you begin to look for a recent, authoritative article on the diagnosis of management of a particular malignancy? The few general oncology textbooks are generally out of date. Single papers in specialized journals are informative but seldom comprehensive; these are more often preliminary reports on a very limited number of patients. Certain general journals frequently publish good in­ depth reviews of cancer topics, and published symposium lectures are often the best overviews available. Unfortunately, these reviews and supplements appear sporadically, and the reader can never be sure when a topic of special interest will be covered. Cancer Treatment and Research is a series of authoritative volumes which aim to meet this need. It is an attempt to establish a critical mass of oncology literature covering virtually all oncology topics, revised frequently to keep the coverage up to date, easily available on a single library shelf or by a single per­ sonal subscription. We have approached the problem in the following fashion. First, by dividing the oncology literature into specific subdivisions such as lung cancer, genitourinary cancer, pediatric oncology, etc. Second, by asking eminent authorities in each of these areas to edit a volume on the specific topic on an an­ nual or biannual basis. Each topic and tumor type is covered in a volume appear­ ing frequently and predictably, discussing current diagnosis, staging, markers, all forms of treatment modalities, basic biology, and more.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Biology of Brain Tumour. The first Symposium was held in 1979 at Gardonne Riviera, Italy. This meeting was planned in order to coincide with the lOOth Anniversary of the first reported operation for glioma in London on November 25, 1884. Since the first meeting, the field of neuro-oncology has made remarkable progress in understanding both basic and clinical factors of significance to patients with brain tumor. While the earlier meeting dealt to a large extent with clinically oriented studies, this symposium was more heavily weighted toward the biology of brain tumour and improving our understanding at the physiologic, biochemical, pharmacologic, and cellular level. The meeting was divided according to scientific content into presentations and discussions as well as posters for more leisurely viewing, so as to allow the main themes of the meeting to sequentially develop. The first session dealt extensively with neuro-oncology at the molecular level and included considerable discus­ sion of material related to the babic biochemical milieu in which tumors originate, proliferate, and eventually destroy the brain. Classic neuropathology has been the mainstay of tumor identification and characteriza­ tion, however, the process of classification has become much more complex. The availability of a variety of new tools has allowed investigation into the validity of the more traditional classification systems as well as the development of newer biologically related concepts.

While the earlier meeting dealt to a large extent with clinically oriented studies, this symposium was more heavily weighted toward the biology of brain tumour and improving our understanding at the physiologic, biochemical, pharmacologic, and cellular level.