Abstract
The incidence of tumors in the central nervous system is 10–15 per 100.000 per year. Brain tumors are the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children under 15 years of age, and the third for the group between 15 and 34 years of age. The gliomas, i.e. tumors emanating from the glia, compose the majority of all malignancies of the brain; the astrocytomas constitute about 45% of all brain tumors, the oligodendrogliomas about 5%. Astrocytoma grades III–IV1 (equivalent to malignant gliomas or glioblastoma multiforme) are highly malignant, while astrocytoma grades I–II are less malignant. A large portion of the low-grade astrocytomas evolve into grades III–IV as a result of progressive dedifferentiation. Patients with high-grade astrocytomas are still beyond cure in spite of extensive surgery, improved radiotherapy and combination chemotherapy. Median survival time after the first operation for an astrocytoma grade III–IV is at best about 14 months, and only exceptional cases (3‰) survive more than 10 years.
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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Salford, L.G., Ceberg, C.P., Brun, A., Persson, A., Persson, R.B.R. (1996). Foundations for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy of High-Grade Astrocytomas. In: Mishima, Y. (eds) Cancer Neutron Capture Therapy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9567-7_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9567-7_33
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