Evaluating Spelling in Glioma Patients Undergoing Awake Surgery: a Systematic Review

Abstract

A main goal of awake surgery is to preserve language in order to facilitate return to work and maintain quality of life. Although spelling has become crucial in daily life, it has received little attention in awake surgery practice. We review assessments of spelling carried out in awake surgery studies, to inspect how current neurofunctional theories of spelling may guide pre-, intraand post-operative neurosurgical practice. A systematic database search in Embase, Medline, PubMed and Web of Science identified studies reporting on spelling assessment in glioma patients undergoing awake surgery. Twenty-three studies were included, of which only 9 report details on spelling assessments. We evaluate the incidence of dysgraphia in glioma patients, the types of spelling errors as a function of tumor location, and the specificity of spelling sites with respect to other language functions. Post-operative dysgraphia arose in 26.9% of the patients with preserved pre-operative handwriting, and persisted in 45.0% of them at follow-up. Intra-operative stimulation interfered only with handwriting in 37.7% of the patients. A network of frontal, parietal and temporal regions was found to underlie central and peripheral spelling processes. Evidence on spelling performance in patients undergoing awake surgery for gliomas is surprisingly scarce. With the limitations inherent in the small number of observations, results converge with the neurofunctional knowledge accruing from studies of stroke cases. Such knowledge should be exploited in more thorough investigations of spelling skills in glioma patients. Implications for clinical and neuroscientific practice are discussed, as well as possible strategies to overcome current limitations.

Circular RNA circSCAF11 Accelerates the Glioma Tumorigenesis through the miR-421/SP1/VEGFA Axis

“…Glioma is the most common intracranial primary cancer with extraordinarily high morbidity and mortality worldwide 1, 2, 3, 4. In spite of the common methods for clinical treatment, such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the long-term effects and postoperative outcomes for the patients with glioma are still dissatisfactory 5, 6.…”

Resting-State Electroencephalography Functional Connectivity Networks Relate to Pre- and Postoperative Language Functioning in Low-Grade Glioma and Meningioma Patients

“…A selection of standardized language tests was conducted, assessing a wide range of linguistic abilities. Tests included object naming ( De Witte et al, 2015 ), action naming in sentence context ( Rofes, 2012 ), the shortened version of the Token Test ( De Renzi and Faglioni, 1978 ), category fluency ( Luteijn and Barelds, 2004 ), letter fluency ( Schmand et al, 2008 ), reading and writing ( Van Ierschot, 2018 ), and subtests of the Diagnostic Instrument for Mild Aphasia (DIMA; Satoer et al, 2019 ): repetition, semantic odd-picture-out, sentence completion), and sentence judgment ( De Witte et al, 2015 ).…”

Circular RNA circ_0001162 promotes cell proliferation and invasion of glioma via the miR-936/ERBB4 axis

“…Numerous treatments have been developed after the massive efforts by researchers, including surgery, immunotherapy, stem cell therapy and drug therapy [3][4][5]. The presence of molecular markers related to glioma may provide a new therapeutic perspective for glioma [6].…”