Nikova Aleksandrina Sasheva and Theodossios Birbilis
Metaxa, Cancer Hospital, Greece
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Neurol Neurophysiol
Introduction: Glioblastoma is the most malignant brain tumor leading to extremely high mortality rates. Its
management is varying between chemo- and radiotherapy, surgery and many others innovative approaches, but
the brain surgery still remains a ??gold standard?. There is also a belief that the more aggressive the management, the
better. And this concern raised an issue ?? does the aggressiveness applies also for the surgical microscope and the
ability to achieve gross total resection?
Methods: Because of the latter, we performed an analysis of the literature published on MEDLINE, comparing the
normal light microscope technique with 5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), both used only for glioblastoma. The data
were processed with a statistical program.
Results: The outcome of the study suggests that the both types of microscope- techniques are unequal regarding the
GTR, which on the other hand has no impact on the overall survival. Age, however, as an independent factor, plays
a key role for the final outcome of the Glioblastoma patients.
Conclusion: The motto stated above may be suitable for the therapy of glioblastoma, but it could not be applied for
the surgical microscope.
Nikova Aleksandrina Sasheva is a Neurosurgical resident at Metaxa Cancer Hospital, Athens Greece. She is the mentor of fundamental neuroscience for neuroimaging by Johns Hopkins. She is mentor of Social Psychology for Wesleyan University and member of the Medical Association of Greece and Switzerland.
E-mail: nikovaalex@gmail.com