Brain Tumor Imaging: Pretherapy

I would like to thank Mauricio Castillo, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR), for inviting me to be Guest Editor for the AJNR Special Collection titled Brain Tumor Imaging, Volume 1: Pretherapy. Begun in 2008, the biannual Special Collection is a compilation of important research articles published in AJNR focused on an imaging topic or disease.

In this process, I have had the great opportunity to review many excellent articles on this subject published in AJNR over the past 2 decades. Echoing the sentiments made by previous Special Collection Editors, it is impossible to overstate how difficult it was to omit many important papers published in AJNR. There has been a great deal of excellent research in brain tumor imaging, certainly enough for a multi-volume set pertaining to various aspects of brain tumor imaging. In order to maintain the purpose of the Special Collection series, however, this compilation was intentionally limited.

Upon reviewing hundreds of AJNR articles on brain tumor imaging, it became clear to me that selecting articles for one Special Collection edition would be insufficient, particularly because therapeutic intervention in brain tumors can pose unique challenges in imaging characterization and interpretation of disease status. I have therefore organized this collection of articles into 2 volumes—imaging characterization of brain tumors before and after therapy.

Brain tumors consist of a heterogeneous group of neoplasms numbering more than 120 different histologic types with a wide range of clinical, biologic, and prognostic behavior. Due to this breadth, I have organized the articles into sections of specific imaging modality or technique and selected the articles that best utilized the respective imaging to address disease-specific questions. Volume 1 of the brain tumor imaging Special Collection will cover essential anatomic and physiologic clinical imaging methods as well as preclinical but highly innovative and potentially ground-breaking imaging methods that promise even greater progress in caring for brain tumor patients in the future. Volume 2 will include articles that focus on imaging of brain tumors after therapy and will follow a similar approach to organizing the articles based on imaging modality.

With gratitude, I would like to acknowledge Drs. William Dillon, Pratik Mukherjee, and Christopher Hess for their insightful comments.

I hope this 2-volume set is useful to those radiologists and clinicians who have interest in brain tumor imaging.

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