Expert review of neurotherapeutics
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The understanding of the pathophysiology of primary headache disorders, especially migraine, has substantially improved over the last two decades. As a result, migraine is now mainly considered to be a disorder of the brain, rather than the vasculature or the meninges. In addition, the insights of the complex pathophysiological mechanisms and the brain structures involved in the disease facilitate the development of new therapeutic approaches. At the recent Annual Meeting of the American Headache Society in Washington (DC, USA) the latest scientific advances, as well as their clinical implications, were highlighted.
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Expert Rev Neurother · Oct 2011
ReviewManagement of von Hippel-Lindau disease-associated CNS lesions.
Patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) often harbor significant disease burden within the CNS, specifically craniospinal-axis hemangioblastomas and endolymphatic sac tumors (ELSTs). The majority (60-80%) of patients with VHL harbor hemangioblastomas, and 10-15% will develop ELSTs. ⋯ Optimizing indications for surgical intervention and refining of surgical techniques for these lesions can reduce patient morbidity associated with the management of this syndrome. In this article, we review the various aspects of perioperative management of patients with VHL, surgical indications and general operative principles for the management of hemangioblastomas and ELSTs, and outcomes associated with the surgical treatment of these tumors.
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American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the largest clinical oncology meeting in the USA, meets annually and consistently provides an exciting forum to present new cancer clinical trials and research data. The ASCO 2011 neuro-oncology session, comprising of 3 days of presentations and over 100 abstracts, provided an overview of neuro-oncology, including both metastatic diseases of the CNS and primary brain tumors. This brief article attempts to highlight select abstracts presented at this years meeting in an organizational manner that will hopefully provide a portrait of the large and multifaceted meeting.