The International Meeting on Brain Oncology in Rennes was organised in
honor of Jean Pecker, to pay tribute to his contribution to the
development of neurological sciences and to take stock of the current
state of knowledge on brain tumors, a domain in which the role of
neurosurgery has been and will continue to be primordial. During the
two-day conference, the major themes of brain oncology studies, both
fundamental and clinical, were examined: oncogenesis, tumoral markers
and immunology, metabolic and diagnosis imaging, prognostic factors and
therapeutic strategies. The large number and high quality of
participations resulted in a genuinely synthetic view of current
advances in research, of which this book presents the essentials. We
have attempted both to preserve the richness of scientific exchanges
which occurred and to publish a great many oral and poster
communications. The book respects the organization of conference
sessions, and thus reflects the importance accorded to glial tumor
studies. This may seem disproportionate given their frequency of
occurrence in proportion to total numbers of intracranial tumor
processes, but their gravity and quasi-total resistance to current
therapeutic methods are ample justification. Moreover, this is the
domain in which hopes of progress are beginning to appear, and it is
becoming possible to envisage treatment based on recently established
fundamental knowledge.