[New development in clinicopathological diagnosis of brain tumors]

The prediction of prognosis and the design of treatment modalities for patients with brain tumors are judged mostly by its histopathology. The morphology of each tumor, however, represents a part of its phenotype, and more attention should be paid to understand phenotypic expression of individual tumors in relation to cytogenetic abnormality at the molecular level, proliferative potential and invasiveness. The author reviewed current studies on cytogenetics, growth characteristics of various brain tumors, and experimental approaches for invasiveness.