In recent years, elucidation of many exciting details of the complex cellular and molecular processes involved in the initiation, progression, and clinical and biological behavior of brain tumors has greatly deepened our understanding of these cancers, and is now leading to new paradigms in their diagnosis and treatment. In Brain Tumors, Francis Ali-Osman, DSc, has assembled a panel of leading experts to summarize and illuminate the full range of recent research advances in their rapidly evolving field, with particular emphasis on those that are providing novel insights into the disease. The chapters critically assess current knowledge and the challenges of the future in relevant areas of brain research, including basic mechanisms of neuro-oncogenesis, molecular neurobiology, genetics, epidemiology, pathology, immunology, and therapy. New knowledge is critically presented on molecular profiling, molecular pathology and classification, in vitro and in vivo brain tumor models, brain metastasis, and progenitor cell biology. They also discuss in depth the cellular and genetic pathways involved in brain oncogenesis, malignant progression, and therapeutic response, highlighting oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, DNA damage and repair, invasion and migration, cell cycle, growth factors, signaling, apoptosis, and developmental biology. The discussion of brain tumor therapy focuses on advances in pharmacological thinking, therapeutic modalities, novel therapeutic targets, rational drug design, gene and viral therapies, drug delivery and the blood-brain barrier, immunotherapy, and brain imaging.
Authoritative and comprehensive, Brain Tumors provides an essential state-of-the-art guide to productive work across the entire range of basic and clinical research in neuro-oncology today. For the both active researcher and the trainee, the book will provide an appreciation of new neuro-oncology concepts and facilitate incorporating them into their own ongoing research.

Zusammenfassung
Exciting new developments and discoveries of the last two decades are beginning to shed light on the complex biology of brain tumors and are advancing our understa- ing of the cellular and molecular processes involved in their initiation, progression, and clinical and biological behavior. The disease process in brain tumors is quite complex and the resulting tumors are characterized by a high degree of biological and clinical diversity. Thus, despite the advances of the last two decades, prognosis for patients with malignant brain tumors remains abysmal. Significant progress in the diagnosis, treatment and, ultimately, prevention of these tumors will require both the timely h- nessing of the advances in basic and clinical brain tumor research, and a continuing concerted effort at increasing our understanding of brain tumor biology, in particular, the molecular genetic changes and perturbations of cellular pathways involved in brain oncogenesis and which drive the biological and clinical behavior of the tumors. Brain tumor diagnosis and prognosis, which is still largely based on histopathology and other clinical criteria, will, in the future, acquire a significant molecular component, with the incorporation of knowledge of genes that are mutated, over-expressed, deleted, silenced, or functionally altered in the tumors. Treatment strategies for brain tumors, rather than being empirical, will be rationally developed based on an understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms and targets that have been activated, suppressed, or otherwise altered.

Inhalt
Epidemiology, Biology, Genetics, and Pathology.- Epidemiology of Brain Tumors.- Molecular Genetics of Tumors of the Central Nervous System.- Molecular Pathology of Nervous System Tumors.- Genetic Modeling of Glioma Formation in Mice.- Biology of Brain Metastasis.- Analysis of Neural Precursor Cells in the Context of Origin of Brain Tumors, Their Treatment, and Repair of Treatment-Associated Damage.- Biology of Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors.- Mechanisms and Pathways.- Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Blood-Brain Barrier and Its Characteristics in Brain Tumors.- Immune Regulation in the Brain.- Genetic Pathways in the Evolution of Gliomas.- DNA Damage and Repair in the Therapeutic Response of Tumors of the Central Nervous System.- Role of Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator Receptor in Human Glioma Invasion.- Regulation of Cell-Cycle and Apoptosis in Human Brain Tumors.- Therapeutics.- Systemic Chemotherapy for Metastatic Tumors of the Central Nervous System.- Radiation Biology and Therapy of Tumors of the Central Nervous System.- Advances in the Management of Cerebral Metastases.- Immunotherapy of Central Nervous System Tumors.- Targeting Drugs to Tumors of the Central Nervous System.- Rational Design and Development of Targeted Brain Tumor Therapeutics.