Role of Nitric Oxide in Glioblastoma Therapy: Another Step to Resolve the Terrible Puzzle ?

Glioblastoma Multiforme, the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor, remains incurable despite of the advent of modern surgical and medical treatments. This poor prognosis depends by the recurrence after surgery and intrinsic or acquired resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Nitric oxide is a small molecule that plays a key roles in glioma pathophysiology. Many researches showing that NO is involved in induction of apoptosis, radiosensitization and chemosensitization. Therefore, NO role, if clarified, may improve the knowledge about this unsolved puzzle called GBM.

Review of 2 decades of aneurysm-recurrence literature, part 1: reducing recurrence after endovascular coiling.

SUMMARY: Angiographic recurrence following endovascular therapy is an indirect measure of the potential for hemorrhage. Because patients and physicians consider recurrence to be a suboptimal outcome with some chance of future hemorrhage, much effort has been expended to reduce the incidence of recurrence. The literature regarding aneurysm recurrence following endovascular therapy, spanning 2 decades, is extensive. We will review and summarize the effort to reduce recurrence following endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms.

Review of 2 decades of aneurysm-recurrence literature, part 2: Managing recurrence after endovascular coiling.

Cerebral aneurysms are treated to prevent hemorrhage or rehemorrhage. Angiographic recurrences following endovascular therapy have been a problem since the advent of this treatment technique, even though posttreatment hemorrhage remains rare. Notwithstanding its unclear clinical significance, angiographic recurrence remains not only a prime focus in the literature but also frequently leads to potentially risky retreatments. The literature regarding aneurysm recurrence following endovascular therapy, spanning 2 decades, is immense and immensely confusing. We review the topic of recurrence following endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms in an effort to distill it down to fundamental material relevant to clinical practice.

Efficacy and safety of flow diversion for paraclinoid aneurysms: a matched-pair analysis compared with standard endovascular approaches.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Flow diversion is a new strategy for the treatment of complex paraclinoid aneurysms. However, flow diverters have, to date, not been tested in direct comparison with other available treatments. We present a matched-pair comparison of paraclinoid aneurysms treated with the PED versus other endovascular techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-one eligible patients with 22 paraclinoid aneurysms treated with the PED at our institution were matched with historic controls with aneurysms of similar size and location. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the 2 groups in terms of aneurysm size, location, risk factors, or comorbidities. Mean dome size was 13.9 ± 6.7 mm in the control group and 14.9 ± 6.3 mm in the PED group (P = .52). Balloon and stent assistance were used in 31.8% and 9.1% of controls, respectively, while carotid sacrifice was used in 36.4% of the controls. There was a significant difference in the rate of complete occlusion favoring PED at radiologic follow-up (P = .03). CONCLUSIONS: Flow diverters achieve a much higher rate of complete angiographic obliteration compared with other standard endovascular techniques in the treatment of internal carotid artery aneurysms. In this series, this higher angiographic obliteration rate did not occur at the expense of an increased rate of complications. Careful long-term follow-up is of the utmost importance to definitively validate flow diversion as a superior therapeutic strategy for proximal internal carotid artery aneurysms.