Introduction Cranial irradiation is used in settings ranging from definitive treatment of primary brain and head and neck cancers to palliation of metastatic disease and prophylaxis, as a single modality or in combination with surgery or systemic therapy. Common side-effect…
Introduction Cognitive abilities in glioma patients are influenced by a myriad of factors: the tumor itself, depression and anxiety, fatigue, sleep dysfunction, pre–brain tumor cognitive baseline (e.g., premorbid functioning), pain, and brain tumor treatments themselves (e.g., surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation).…
Introduction Cerebral radiation necrosis is a challenging and potentially devastating complication of cranial irradiation. Based on the temporal relationship to radiation therapy (RT), it can be classified as pseudoprogression (a form of early subacute injury) or radiation necrosis (a form…
Acknowledgments We thank Dr. Andrew McKeon (Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota) for providing Case 23.6: Paraneoplastic neurological syndrome. Introduction Malignant cells of both B-cell and T-cell origin have a predilection for infiltrating into…
Introduction Despite the development of new therapies and related neurological complications, the two main considerations in patients with a history of cancer presenting with a brachial or lumbar plexopathy is neoplastic plexopathy or radiation-induced plexopathy. A focused cancer history and…
Introduction Perineural invasion (PNI) refers to a rare type of contiguous spread of neoplastic cells from their primary site along the potential space between or beneath the layers of perineurium. This entity is best described in cancers of the head…
Introduction Paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND) syndromes are immune-mediated disorders that affect the central, peripheral, or autonomic nervous system in the setting of a cancer. These disorders are not caused by a direct tissue invasion of cancer; instead, they are associated…
Introduction to medical complications of brain tumors Patients with brain tumors are at risk of many complications from their cancer. Complications may result from direct effects of the tumor itself due to infiltration of the brain parenchyma or mass effect,…
Introduction Although neurofibromatosis and tuberous sclerosis comprise some of the most common inherited tumor syndromes in neuro-oncology, clinicians will encounter patients with other, less common syndromes who could present with a range of neurologic and extranervous manifestations of their disease.…
Introduction Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant neurocutaneous condition characterized by a predisposition to hamartomas in the brain, heart, kidney, skin, eye, and other organs. TSC is the second most common neurogenetic tumor syndrome affecting approximately 1 in…