4.22.2008

Improving quality of life for brain tumour patients

A new neuroimaging study at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University aims to ensure the highest quality of life for patients by assessing their cognitive skills before, during, and after brain tumour surgery. This is done by mapping the important functional brain areas surrounding the tumour in order to decrease the risks during surgery.

Brain tumour surgery requires a delicate balance between removing as much of a tumour as possible in order to ensure a patients' survival and extend life expectancy, while striving to preserve motor, sensory, and cognitive abilities (functional areas of the brain), and thus quality of life. This new study by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, published recently in the Journal of Neurosurgery, looks at functional neuroimaging in patients undergoing surgery for the removal of brain tumours. This is done in order to localize important functional areas of the brain so that these can be preserved during the surgical procedure. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used extensively to map sensory and motor functions, as well as to define brain regions involved in language processes but, until now, has not been applied to higher-order cognitive functions such as memory.

source: Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital

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