Bhopal: First day Pre conference of the 11th Indian Society of Neuro-Oncology Conference began here on Thursday at Bansal hospital and Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre on April 4. On first day of pre conference, two workshops demonstrating Advanced Neuro-Surgical Techniques for resection of Brain tumors, Radiotherapy Contouring for better radiation treatment, held at Bansal Hospital while another workshop on Molecular Neuro-Oncology workshop for hands-on training of various molecular biology techniques which are essential for guiding targeted therapy for Brain tumor at BMHRC.
In the Neurosurgery workshop, experts from Tata Memorial hospital Mumbai and SIMS, Chennai related to neuro-oncology demonstrated the operative procedures in front of doctors and MD students. Tumors from eloquent cortex were removed using Intra-operative monitoring. Two live surgeries and case presentations were held along with lectures by experts.
In the Radiotherapy workshop, hands on training was given to students on Treatment planning stations for planning precise radiotherapy for various brain tumors as gliomas, metastasis, benign brain tumors held in workshop of Radiotherapy Contouring.
In this workshop Lectures on molecular Neuro-Oncology, Hands-on lab training for IF-ICC, Flow Cytometry, Dot Immune-binding assay (DIA) for proteomic markers held.
Speaking about the pre conference Dr Vedantam Rajshekhar, Professor, Neurosurgery, CMC Vellore who is an international expert on Intra-operative Neuro monitoring told media that such techniques significantly improve the amount of tumor resection with maximal safety.
Dr Anusheel Munshi, Senior Radiation Oncologist, Manipal Hospital, New Delhi told about precision based radiotherapy has progressed remarkably. The radiotherapy waves can be contoured as per the shape of the tumor in 3D manner. As a result, the effect to surrounding normal brain parenchyma reduces drastically.
Dr Sujit Prabhu, Neurosurgeon-Scientist, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Texas, Houstan, USA who is an expert on Laser Therapy for brain tumors told that there are deep seated tumors which are difficult to operate. In such tumors, the laser treatment can be delivered directly into the tumor with the help of a small probe. Laser energy is then used to destroy the tumor. The initial results have been very promising. However, the costs are very prohibitive and therefore it would still take some time till this treatment is more widely available.