GRADING OF GLIOMAS

The traditional schemes for grading gliomas, in particular astrocytoma s, have not been widely accepted by the neuropathology community, At p resent, four systems are in use, separating either three or four grade s of tumour, All four systems are histopathology-based. Intermediate g rade astrocytomas show a wide variation in survival times and predicti on based on histopathological features remains problematic, Molecular- genetic alterations that have been identified in astrocytomas will eve ntually be incorporated into grading schemes as indicators of where a tumour has reached in the biological continuum from low to high grade of malignancy. (C) Pearson Professional Ltd 1997