Glioma is the most common intra-axial tumor, and its location relative to critical areas of the brain is important for treatment decision-making. Studies often report tumor location based on anatomical taxonomy alone since the estimation of eloquent regions requires considerable knowledge of functional neuroanatomy and is, to some degree, a subjective measure. An unbiased and reproducible method to determine tumor location and eloquence is desirable, both for clinical use and for research purposes.
To report on a voxel-based method for assessing anatomical distribution and proximity to eloquent regions in diffuse lower-grade gliomas (World Health Organization grades 2 and 3).
A multi-institutional population-based dataset of adult patients (≥18 years) histologically diagnosed with lower-grade glioma was analyzed. Tumor segmentations were registered to a standardized space where two anatomical atlases were used to perform a voxel-based comparison of the proximity of segmentations to brain regions of traditional clinical interest.
Exploring the differences between patients with oligodendrogliomas, isocitrate dehydrogenase
We present a simple, robust, unbiased, and clinically relevant method for assessing tumor location and eloquence in lower-grade gliomas.