Functional imaging-based diagnostic strategy: Intra-axial brain masses

Abstract

Imaging plays an integral role in the management of brain tumors, including tumor diagnosis and classification, treatment planning, and posttreatment surveillance. Conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with gadolinium-based contrast agents on current high field clinical MR systems provide excellent anatomic and morphologic imaging of brain tumors. Anatomic MR imaging can determine the location of intracranial masses, presence of edema, mass effect, calcification, cyst formation, hemorrhage, vascularization, and contrast enhancement. Extra-axial and intra-axial brain tumors can also be discriminated quite accurately by anatomic imaging. However, the assessment of tumor type, grade, and extension, and differentiation of tumors from tumor-like conditions can be limited, potentially affecting therapeutic decision making [1, 2].