Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyū no shinpo
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Despite remarkable advancements in brain tumor surgery after the introduction of operating microscopes and neuronavigation systems, precise removal of infiltrative brain tumors such as gliomas remains difficult. In many cases, the margins of these tumors are unclear even under the microscope. Neuronavigation based on preoperative images also is unreliable after the "brain shift" phonomenon following cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) withdrawal and/or tumor removal. ⋯ Various lay-outs of the operating room and iMRI units with different magnetic field strengths ranging from 0.12T to 3.0T are currently in use. In 2006, we introduced 2 operation theaters with iMRI units, a 0.4T, relatively low (0.4T) and high (1.5T) magnetic-field strengths were installed at the Nagoya University Hospital and the Nagoya Central Hospital, one of our affiliated hospitals, respectively. In this paper, we discuss the, effectiveness of iMRI, as well as several problems associated with its application on the basis of the relevant literatures and our experience of more than 400 operations performed at the 2 different iMRI operation theaters, Brain THEATER and BrainSUITE.
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Oncolytic viruses are genetically engineered, recombinant viruses or naturally occurring, attenuated viruses that infect, replicate selectively within, and destroy tumor cells. These viruses are nontoxic to normal tissues, and progeny viruses released from destroyed tumor cells can spread and infect surrounding tumor cells. In addition, most oncolytic viruses can elicit specific antitumor immunity in the course of tumor cell destruction. ⋯ Thus far, oncolytic viruses that are inoculated intratumorally, are shown to be safe; adverse events typically observed are usually transient and include local inflammation and flu-like symptoms. Oncolytic viruses can be used in combination with chemotherapy or other conventional therapies, which, in some cases, can lead to synergistic effects. This review summarizes the recent advances in clinical and preclinical research on oncolytic virus therapy for malignant brain tumors.