Brain tumours: classification and genes
Open Access
- 1 June 2004
- journal article
- review article
- Published by BMJ in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
- Vol. 75 (suppl_2) , ii2-ii11
- https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2004.040337
Abstract
Most recent classifications of brain tumours build on the 1926 work of Bailey and Cushing.2 This classification named tumours after the cell type in the developing embryo/fetus or adult which the tumour cells most resembled histologically. The cell of origin of the majority of brain tumours is unknown as no pre-malignant states are recognised, as is the case in some epithelial tumour forms. In some tumours, cells may be so atypical that it is difficult to compare them with any normal cell type—hence the use of terms such as glioblastoma. Many unsound or illogical terms have remained in the classifications, as once established in a complex medical setting they are difficult to change. In this paper the terminology and definitions of the World Health Organization classification of 2000 will be exclusively used.1 There are more than 120 entities in this classification and here we will concentrate on those that most frequently occur in adults and children. These are the pilocytic astrocytomas, ependymomas, and medulloblastomas in children, and the diffuse astrocytic tumours (including astrocytoma, anaplastic astrocytomas, and glioblastomas), oligodendrogliomas, and meningiomas in adults.Keywords
This publication has 100 references indexed in Scilit:
- Alterations of the Tumor Suppressor Genes CDKN2A (p16), p14, CDKN2B (p15), and CDKN2C (p18) in Atypical and Anaplastic MeningiomasThe American Journal of Pathology, 2001
- Somatic mutations ofWNT/wingless signaling pathway components in primitive neuroectodermal tumorsInternational Journal of Cancer, 2001
- Molecular cytogenetic analysis of medulloblastomas and supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors by using conventional banding, comparative genomic hybridization, and spectral karyotypingJournal of Neurosurgery, 2000
- Somatic mutations in the human homologue of Drosophila patched in primitive neuroectodermal tumoursOncogene, 1997
- Identification of a candidate tumour suppressor gene, MMAC1, at chromosome 10q23.3 that is mutated in multiple advanced cancersNature Genetics, 1997
- PTEN , a Putative Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Gene Mutated in Human Brain, Breast, and Prostate CancerScience, 1997
- Platelet‐derived growth factor in human gliomaGlia, 1995
- Proliferation markers in gliomas: A comparison of BUDR, KI-67, and MIB-1Journal of Neuro-Oncology, 1995
- A new regulatory motif in cell-cycle control causing specific inhibition of cyclin D/CDK4Nature, 1993
- Monosomy 22 in Rhabdoid or Atypical Teratoid Tumors of the BrainNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989