Extent of resection of DTI abnormality is the best predictor of outcome in glioblastomas

What is it about?

Glioblastoma, the commonest and most malignant tumour of the brain. As surgeons we judge how much of it we remove based on conventional MRI. Yet we know this does not show the full extent of the tumour. Our previous work has suggested DTI, an advanced method that can detect invasion not seen on standard imaging, is a better marker of the full extent of the tumour. This study shows that the more of the DTI abnormality is removed the better the survival for patients and suggests we might need to re-think what we look at to assess extent of resection.

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Why is it important?

There is unfortunately a lack of new treatments that can be used in patients in the next few years. That makes it more important than ever to optimise our current treatments. This study tells us how we might do this for surgery. It also suggests we may use these imaging methods to individualise surgery for patients.