Oncology of CNS Tumors

Book excerpt: Knowledge about the etiology and diagnosis as well as treatment concepts of neu- oncologic diseases is rapidly growing. This turnover of knowledge makes it dif? cult for the physician engaged in the treatment to keep up to date with current therapies. This book sets out to close the gap and pursues several innovative concepts. As a comprehensive text on neuro-oncology, its chapters are interconnected, but at the same time some chapters or subdivisions are so thoroughly assembled that the whole volume gives the impression of several books combined into one. Neuropathology is treated in an extensive and clearly structured section. The int- ested reader ? nds for each tumor entity the latest well-referenced consensus rega- ing histologic and molecular pathology. Through this “book-in-the-book” concept, information on neuropathology is readily at hand in a concise form and without ov- loading the single chapters. Pediatric neuro-oncology differs in many entities from tumors in adult patients; also, certain tumors of the CNS are typically or mainly found only in the child. Therefore, pediatric neuro-oncology was granted its own, book-like section. Tumor entities that are treated differently in children and adults are included both in the pediatric neuro-oncology section and in the general section. Entities that typically occur only in the child and adolescent are found in the pediatric section in order to avoid redundancies.