Surgical oncology for gliomas: the state of the art

Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment for patients with glioma of any grade. Maximal resection of the tumour is central to achieving long-term disease control; however, the relationship between the extent of glioma resection and actual clinical benefit for the patient is predicated on the balance between cytoreduction and neurological morbidity. For the neurosurgical oncologist, the clinical rationale for undertaking increasingly extensive resections has gained traction. In parallel, novel surgical techniques and technologies have been developed that help improve patient outcomes. During the past decade, neurosurgeons have leveraged advanced intraoperative imaging methods, fluorescence-based tumour biomarkers, and real-time mutational analyses to maximize the extent of tumour resection. In addition, approaches to minimizing the risk of perioperative morbidity continue to be improved through the combined use of stimulation-mapping techniques, corticospinal tract imaging, and stereotactic thermal ablation. Taken together, these modern principles of neurosurgical oncology bear little resemblance to historical therapeutic strategies for patients with glioma and have dramatically altered the approach to the treatment of patients with these brain tumours. Herein, we outline the state of the art in surgical oncology for gliomas.