CNS Oncology: reflecting a rapidly changing landscape

We are delighted, as the Senior Editors of the new journal CNS Oncology, to introduce ourselves and welcome you to our seminal issue. We hope that you will find the content relevant to our field and be eager to both read the first issue as well as submit to future issues. The contributions of Victoria Lane, the Launch Editor for Future Medicine, Ltd, the administrator of CNS Oncology, cannot be overstated. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with her in the production of this journal.

CNS Oncology will contain articles that reflect the rapidly changing landscape in the field of neuro-oncology. We hope to focus on the major issues of both primary and metastatic brain tumors in a timely fashion and generate meaningful dialogue regarding a broad spectrum of issues important to clinical and laboratory investigation of these tumors.

It is now impossible to attend a neuro-oncology meeting without passionate discussions on a broad spectrum of issues. These include, but are by no means limited to, the optimal therapy of primary and metastatic brain tumors, the appropriate role of imaging modalities in detecting both progression and response to therapy of these tumors, the role that genomic analysis plays in altering therapeutic strategies, the potential for personalized medicine using a platform of complete tumor genomic analyses, the particular issues that may arise with newer modalities such as antiangiogenic therapy, the role of newer interventions such as immunotherapy and, because we fortunately have an increasing population of survivors, the appropriate way to be sure that long-term survivors receive rigorous attention to the consequences of their tumor and the therapy chosen to treat it.

We recognize that consensus is never possible in neuro-oncology and hope that a vigorous dialogue generated by the articles chosen for publication in CNS Oncology will lead to intellectual debates that can result in improvements in the treatment and outcome of patients with brain tumors. We welcome submissions on all topics of neuro-oncology and are particularly interested in publishing articles that will have opposing views, allowing the generation of meaningful discussions. In other words, controversial topics are particularly welcome as they frequently lead to the most important discussions in any given field.

As you will see, there are subjects that are in both this inaugural issue and future issues of CNS Oncology that will reflect the many issues detailed above and, we hope, lead to our field moving forward. There is no question that much work needs to be done in neuro-oncology, and CNS Oncology hopes to play a major role in disseminating this information to a broad constellation of physicians and scientists involved in the neuro-oncology field.