Introducing the Case-Based Reviews series: a new educational resource for brain tumor clinicians and trainees.

Abstract

Neuro-Oncology Practice occupies a unique position within the field of neuro-oncology as the only journal dedicated solely to clinical practice. To support that mission, this issue marks the first installment of Case-Based Reviews, a new series of biannual articles that will provide timely reviews regarding key clinical scenarios within the field. Medicine is a field of multidisciplinary collaboration, and this is especially true within neuro-oncology. A patient with a brain tumor may present first to their primary care doctor or neurologist before being referred to a neurosurgeon, then meet both a medical oncologist and radiation oncologist shortly after surgery. Patient care is further informed by the expertise of physicians the patient may never meet, including radiologists and pathologists. While some patients receive all of their care in a dedicated brain tumor center, many others receive a significant portion of their care from providers for whom brain tumor treatment is only a small part of their clinical experience, for example patients with malignant brain tumors treated by medical and radiation oncologists who also see patients with other tumor types. The patient care team is not limited to physicians; vital roles are played by nurses, mid-level providers, therapists, and trainees of various disciplines. This team-based approach to care does have the consequence of making it difficult for a single provider, no matter how dedicated, to stay up-to-date on developments in the field as a whole. The Case-Based Reviews series will present cohesive and multidisciplinary discussions regarding tumor treatment that will prove useful to every health care provider encountering a patient with a brain tumor, regardless of their field of expertise. Each installment will cover a single tumor type or family of related tumors in enough depth to be useful even to the practicing subspecialist working in a brain tumor center, and in enough breadth that the single article can provide trainees or nonspecialists with a solid grasp of the major elements of tumor diagnosis and treatment. By restricting our scope to data that directly inform clinical care or promise to change clinical care in the near future, rather than attempting to cover all of the latest basic science and translational work, we can accomplish these goals while keeping each article to a size that can be easily read in a single sitting by a busy clinician. In this first installment, regarding newly diagnosed glioblastoma, we follow a patient from presentation with seizure to diagnosis of glioblastoma, through treatment, and to time of progression. Issues discussed along the way include initial supportive/symptomatic care, the radiographic differential diagnosis of glioblastoma, data supporting maximal safe resection and the tools used to achieve that goal, the roles of chemotherapy and radiation, as well as survivorship and follow-up. In our next installment, to be published in six months’ time, we will provide a similar comprehensive review of the diagnosis and management of meningioma, the most common benign brain tumor, from rational evaluation of an incidentally discovered dural mass through salvage therapy for anaplastic (WHO grade III) disease. Over time, we expect to cover other common tumors and scenarios such a recurrent glioblastoma and grade II and III glioma, as well as review rarer tumor histologies, especially those tumors in which treatment is controversial or in which recent data have led to new approaches. To best serve the mission of Neuro-Oncology Practice, we will strive to always have the most accessible and up-to-date reviews of vital neuro-oncology issues, and thus some topics will be repeated over time in response to new developments in the field. The Case-Based Review series will exemplify the international approach of the journal Neuro-Oncology Practice. High-quality care for brain tumors is delivered around the world, and the field as a whole is advanced by the dedicated work of international brain tumor societies. Future installments of this series will incorporate the expertise of colleagues from the Asian Society of Neuro-Oncology (ASNO) and the European Association of NeuroOncology (EANO) in addition to the ongoing support of members of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO). I thank the editors of Neuro-Oncology Practice for asking me to help coordinate this effort, and my co-authors for their efforts in producing the accompanying review of glioblastoma care. The long-term success of this series, like the long-term success of the journal as a whole, will depend on the active participation of the neuro-oncology community. I invite anyone interesting in contributing to this effort in any way to contact me.