Oligodendrogliomas are a type of glioma that originate from the oligodendrocytes of the brain. They occur primarily in adults (9.4% of all primary brain and central nervous system tumors) and are only rarely found in children (4% of all primary brain tumors). The median age of diagnosis for oligodendroglioma is 41 years of age. Males account for 75% of these cases. The following codes are used with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... The International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O) is a domain specific extension of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems for tumor diseases. ... The following is a list of codes for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... A glioma is a type of primary central nervous system (CNS) tumor that arises from glial cells. ... These are a variety of neuroglias that wrap around neurons in Central Nervous System to for the mtolin sheath, increasing impulse speed. ... Comparative brain sizes In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ...

Aetiology

The aetiology of oligodendrogliomas is unknown. Some studies have linked oligodendroglioma with a viral cause, a single case report has linked oligodendroglioma to irradiation of pituitary adenoma.

Symptoms

In anywhere from fifty to eighty percent of cases, the first symptom of an oligodendroglioma is the onset of seizure activity. They occur mainly in the frontal lobe thus affecting personality. Headaches combined with increased intracranial pressure are also a common symptom of oligodendroglioma. Depending on the location of the tumor, any neurological deficit can be induced, from visual loss, motor weakness and cognitive decline. A Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan is necessary to characterize the anatomy of this tumor (size, location, heter/homogeneity). However, final diagnosis of this tumor, like most tumors, relies on histopathologic examination (biopsy examination). This article is about the medical term, epileptic seizure, as distinct from psychogenic non-epileptic seizure. ... The frontal lobe is an area in the brain of vertebrates. ... A headache is a condition of mild to severe pain in the head; sometimes upper back or neck pain may also be interpreted as a headache. ... Intracranial pressure, or ICP, is the pressure of the brain, Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and the brains blood supply within the intracranial space. ... CT apparatus in a hospital Computed tomography (CT), originally known as computed axial tomography (CAT) and body section roentgenography, is a medical imaging method employing tomography where digital processing is used to generate a three-dimensional image of the internals of an object from a large series of two-dimensional... Magnetic Resonance Image showing a vertical cross section through a human head. ... Tumor (American English) or tumour (British English) originally means swelling, and is sometimes still used with that meaning. ... A biopsy (in Greek: bios = life and opsy = look/appearance) is a medical test involving the removal of cells or tissues for examination. ...

Histopathological Grading

Oligodendrogliomas are classified according to World Health Organization guidelines as grade II or anaplastic (malignant) grade III. WHO emblem The World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations, acting as a coordinating authority on international public health, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. ...

Molecular Genetics

By far, the most common structural deformity found is co-deletion of chromosomal arms 1p and 19q. The high frequency of co-deletion (~70%) is a striking feature of this glial tumour, and is considered as a "genetic signature" of oligodendroglioma. The putative major tumour genes on these loci remain elusive due to loss of the whole chromosomal arms. However, the cell cycle regulator CDKN2C located on 1p is occasionally homozygously deleted or mutated, indicating a small contribution to tumourigenesis.

Treatment

A surgeon will typically remove as much of the tumor as he or she can without damaging other critical, healthy brain structures. Often, surgery is followed up by chemotherapy, radiation, or a mix of both. Oligodendrogliomas tend to reappear; these recurrent tumors are then treated the same way as the initial tumor, with sometimes more aggressive chemo or radiation therapy. Recently, stereotactic surgery has proven successful in treating small tumors that have been diagnosed early. A typical modern surgery operation For other meanings of the word, see Surgery (disambiguation) Surgery (from the Greek cheirourgia meaning hand work) is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment. ... Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. ... Radiation has a variety of different meanings. ... Stereotactic surgery is a minimally-invasive form of surgical intervention which makes use of a three-dimensional coordinates system to locate small targets inside the body and to perform on them some action such as ablation (removal), biopsy, lesion, injection, stimulation, implantation, etc. ...

Currently, the life expectancy of a person with a high-grade brain tumor is five to eight years from diagnosis and eight to ten years for low-grade patients. There is some life expectancy variation, however, between different subsets of brain tumor. Some cases have been recorded of people surpassing these odds; with aggressive treatment and close monitoring, it is possible to outlive the typical life expectancies for both low grade and high grade oligodendrogliomas. In pathology, Grading is a measure of the progress of tumors. ... In pathology, Grading is a measure of the progress of tumors. ...