A literatura demonstra que extensão da ressecção do tumor tem impacto na qualidade de vida e sobrevida dos pacientes com gliomas. RM intraoperatória tem sido utilizada para aumentar a área de ressecção, preservando a segurança do procedimento. MÉTODO: Os cinco primeiros pacientes com gliomas operados na Universidade de São Paulo utilizando RM intraoperatória são relatados. Quatro pacientes tinham índice de Karnofsky de 100% antes da cirurgia. Primeiros sintomas foram cefaléia progressiva, convulsões, distúrbios de comportamento, um caso de hemianopsia, e outro de hemiparesia. RESULTADOS: A remoção macroscópica total foi obtida em dois pacientes. A ressecção cirúrgica foi limitada pela invasão tumoral de áreas críticas como a cápsula interna ou o mesencéfalo no restante dos pacientes. CONCLUSÃO: A RM intra-operatório é uma importante ferramenta que auxilia o cirurgião para remover os tumores gliais, porém, o conhecimento da fisiologia e anatomia funcional ainda é fundamental para evitar a morbidade

Literature has shown that extent of tumor resection has an impact on quality of life and survival of patients with gliomas. Intraoperative MRI has been used to increase resection while preserving procedure's safety. METHOD: The first five patients with gliomas operated on at the University of São Paulo using intraoperative MRI are reported. All but one patient had Karnofsky Performance Status of 100% before surgery. Presentation symptoms were progressive headache, seizures, behavior disturbance, one instance of hemianopsia, and another of hemiparesis. RESULTS: Gross total removal was achieved in two patients. Surgical resection was limited by tumor invasion of critical areas like the internal capsule or the mesencephalon in the remaining patients. CONCLUSION: Intra-operative MRI is an important tool that helps surgeons to remove glial tumors, however, knowledge of physiology and functional anatomy is still fundamental to avoid morbidity.

OBJETIVO: A associação entre tumores cerebrais e déficits cognitivos é bem estabelecida na literatura. No entanto, estudos sobre a cognição de pacientes com gliomas de baixo e alto grau são escassos, especialmente, em sujeitos com baixa escolaridade. Este estudo investigou o funcionamento cognitivo de uma amostra de pacientes com gliomas de baixo e alto grau antes da intervenção cirúrgica. MÉTODO: Os pacientes com glioma de baixo grau (G1, n=19) e alto grau (G2, n=8) foram avaliados quanto à memória, funções executivas, habilidades visuo-perceptivas e visuo-espaciais, nível intelectual e linguagem. RESULTADOS: Houve prejuízo significativo em G2 na memória episódica verbal e visual, funções executivas incluindo flexibilidade mental, fluência verbal nominal e categórica e velocidade de processamento de informações. G1 demonstrou apenas déficits específicos de evocação verbal e visual, flexibilidade mental e velocidade de processamento. CONCLUSÃO: Estes achados demonstraram níveis diferenciados de comprometimento nos domínios executivos e mnésticos de pacientes com gliomas de baixo e alto grau.

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between brain tumors and cognitive deficits is well established in the literature. However, studies investigating the cognitive status in low and high-grade gliomas patients are scarce, particularly in patients with average or lower educational level. This study aimed at investigating the cognitive functioning in a sample of patients with low and high-grade gliomas before surgical intervention. METHOD: The low-grade (G1, n=19) and high-grade glioma (G2, n=8) patients underwent a detailed neuropsychological assessment of memory, executive functions, visuo-perceptive and visuo-spatial abilities, intellectual level and language. RESULTS: There was a significant impairment on verbal and visual episodic memory, executive functions including mental flexibility, nominal and categorical verbal fluency and speed of information processing in G2. G1 showed only specific deficits on verbal and visual memory recall, mental flexibility and processing speed. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrated different levels of impairments in the executive and memory domains in patients with low and high grade gliomas.

OBJECTIVES: 1) To correlate the methylation status of the O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter to its gene and protein expression levels in glioblastoma and 2) to determine the most reliable method for using MGMT to predict the response to adjuvant therapy in patients with glioblastoma. BACKGROUND: The MGMT gene is epigenetically silenced by promoter hypermethylation in gliomas, and this modification has emerged as a relevant predictor of therapeutic response. METHODS: Fifty-one cases of glioblastoma were analyzed for MGMT promoter methylation by methylation-specific PCR and pyrosequencing, gene expression by real time polymerase chain reaction, and protein expression by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: MGMT promoter methylation was found in 43.1% of glioblastoma by methylation-specific PCR and 38.8% by pyrosequencing. A low level of MGMT gene expression was correlated with positive MGMT promoter methylation (p = 0.001). However, no correlation was found between promoter methylation and MGMT protein expression (p = 0.297). The mean survival time of glioblastoma patients submitted to adjuvant therapy was significantly higher among patients with MGMT promoter methylation (log rank = 0.025 by methylation-specific PCR and 0.004 by pyrosequencing), and methylation was an independent predictive factor that was associated with improved prognosis by multivariate analysis. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: MGMT promoter methylation status was a more reliable predictor of susceptibility to adjuvant therapy and prognosis of glioblastoma than were MGMT protein or gene expression levels. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction and pyrosequencing methods were both sensitive methods for determining MGMT promoter methylation status using DNA extracted from frozen tissue.