Recent Advances and Future Perspectives in Neuro-Oncology and Neuroradiology

Dear Colleagues,

Neuroradiology and neuro-oncology are rapidly evolving, fast-growing fields in modern neurosciences. Since the beginning of modern medicine, a close connection has existed between the two fields in many traumatic, vascular, and oncologic pathologies. These have always been studied and treated synergically. In particular, neuro-oncology is progressively becoming a huge field that encompass not only neurosurgery but several fields of knowledge, including oncology, radiotherapy, pathology, neuroradiology, and interventional radiology. The science available to support our understanding of brain tumor development, growth, and therapy is burgeoning. The fruition of imaging advances, targeted therapy, and molecular tissue analysis techniques leads to a greatly improved environment for brain tumor management in the next decade. Neurosurgeons have introduced many technological advances (robotics, exoscope guided surgery, fluoroscope-guided (5-ALA and fluorescein) surgery, intraoperative ultrasound) supporting the extent of resection, with maximal safe resection impacting the overall survival and quality of life of patients. Hence, innovations in neuroradiology and interventional radiology support neurosurgeons throughout the entire process.

The roles of imaging in neuro-oncology primarily consist of the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response assessment of central nervous system (CNS) tumors. There have been important innovations in numerous advanced imaging techniques with the aims of improving the accuracy of tumor diagnosis and addressing challenging clinical problems. Radiomics, artificial intelligence (including machine and deep learning algorithms) may aid in tumor classification and reducing (or even eliminating) the need for contrast agents or may be used to optimize image quality and/or reduce scanning time. In addition, interventional techniques add a great adjunct to neurosurgery and to neuro-oncology both through the preoperative diagnosis of cerebral vascular supplying and through the super-selective catheterization and embolization of tumor supplying vasculature to reduce intraoperative blood loss. Future directions of interventional therapy may aim toward the super-selective infusion of, e.g., receptor-specific radionuclides or other drugs in tumor-supplying vessels or at increasing the permeability of the blood–brain barrier to assist tumor treatment. This Special Issue will highlight the latest developments in the fields of neuro-oncology and neuroradiology, with particular focus on the multidisciplinary diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of CNS tumors.

Prof. Dr. Salvatore M. Cardali
Dr. Alfredo Conti
Guest Editors

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• neuro-oncology
• neuroradiology
• interventional radiology
• brain tumor
• spine tumor