Recent Advances in the Treatment of Primary Brain Tumors: A Seminar

Alan Baker, MD, Chief Resident in Surgery, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital: Our discussion this morning is on the recent advances and treatment of primary brain tumors. As you all know, the treatment of these lesions was initiated in this hospital by Harvey Cushing, our first chief of surgery, some 60 years ago. We are very pleased to be able to update this work with a case presentation followed by discussion by several knowledgeable participants. I would like first to introduce John Walsh, who will moderate this session. Dr. Walsh: The Department of Neurosurgery would like to present data and comments about some of the more recent concepts in advances of the treatment of primary brain tumors. Keasley Welch will talk about the natural history of malignant brain tumors; Robert Cassady will then discuss radiotherapy; Emil Frei, chemotherapy; and Paul Kornblith, immunologic aspects. To start, we will describe a patient. A