[Brain tumors: the current WHO classification and neuroimagings]

The current World Health Organization Classification of tumors of the Central Nervous System (WHO 2000) lists more than 120 types of brain tumors. Classification of brain tumors is an evolving process, with obsolete entities discarded and newly recognized tumors added with each successive revision. In the past, classification has relied heavily on morphologic pattern recognition and immunohistochemical identification of differentiation antigens. With the discovery of the association between deletions on chromosomes 1 and 19 and the chemosensitivity of anaplasic oligodendrogliomas, a new era of molecular classification of brain tumors began. It is a virtual certainty that current advances in molecular methodologies, particularly in the fields of genomics, transcriptonomics, and proteomics, will revolutionize brain tumor classificaton in the very near future.