A Classification of the Tumors of the Glioma Group on a Histogenetic Basis with a Correlated Study of Prognosis.

Abstract

Gliomas of the brain formed 42 per cent of a series of 1,000 intracranial tumors. Though such gliomas are usually regarded as early and inevitably fatal, the authors noted that many patients after incomplete extirpation of a cerebral glioma survived longer than expected, and this fact led them to make a thorough study of the structure and clinical history of 254 gliomas subjected to surgical treatment. Using the best modern methods for the microscopic study of glioma, the authors classify their gliomas according to structure and designate them in harmony with the terminology now used for cerebral histogenesis and histology. No less than thirteen classes of glioma are described, and to what extent this grouping will be accepted generally is of course something that will be determined in the future. From comparison of the structure with the clinical course, it emerges that gliomas composed of less differentiated cells are more