Brain Tumors: Planning and Monitoring Therapy with Positron Emission Tomography

The term ‘brain tumor’ encompasses a broad spectrum of individual pathologies, affecting a heterogeneous patient population, with few clear etiological factors and widely varying prognostic implications. These tumors range from localized, potentially curable, benign lesions in childhood to rapidly progressive malignant disease with an increasing prevalence in an ageing population. Most primary brain tumors in adults are inherently infiltrating lesions, giving rise to progressive symptoms for the patient and adding to the difficulty of treating the condition without imposing permanent neurological deficits. Despite improvements in diagnostic techniques and potential therapies, outcomes for these patients have not improved substantially over recent years. In fact, the average “years of life lost” by a patient with a tumor of the central nervous system was more than that for any other cancer in one recent review (Burnet et al. 2005). This highlights the need to optimize current management as well as the necessity for further research and development.