Glioma grading and treatment

  Glioma is the most common intracranial tumor and is classified as benign or malignant. Most of them have a slow onset, starting with symptoms such as headache, nausea and vomiting, epilepsy, blurred vision, etc. The symptoms gradually worsen. According to the morphology of tumor cells, astrocytoma, oligoblastoma, ventricular meningioma and glioblastoma can be classified. According to the malignancy of tumor cells: low-grade gliomas (WHO grade 1-2), which are well-differentiated gliomas; however, these tumors still present an aggressive growth pattern in terms of biological characteristics; high-grade gliomas (WHO grade 3-4), which are hypodifferentiated gliomas, are malignant tumors with poor prognosis.  The diagnosis of glioma is based on cranial enhanced MRI examination, which mainly determines the tumor location, size, preliminary tumor type, and how the blood supply is. However, the final determination of pathological type and grading depends on the pathological diagnosis after surgery.  The treatment of glioma needs to decide the treatment strategy according to the location, size and important structures involved in the tumor. Surgery is the preferred treatment method, which not only can provide the final pathological diagnosis, but also can quickly remove most of the tumor cells, relieve the patient’s symptoms and create the conditions for other treatments in the next step. Most gliomas require supplemental radiation therapy or chemotherapy after surgical resection.