The guiding principle in this volume is the importance of knowing what pathological processes are common for a given anatomical location and age of the patient, upon a foundation of knowledge in the histology of normal and reactive processes in the nervous system. Many mistakes in surgical neuropathology may be avoided simply by maintaining an unswerving effort to determine the clinical, laboratory, and, sometimes most importantly, radiological findings in a given case. We also urge the use of standard and uniform terminology rather than idiosyncratic or descriptive diagnoses, which incorporates the World Health Organization 2007 classification for tumors along with contemporary terminology and classification schemes for nonneoplastic diseases. Unambiguous and consistent terminology is the foundation of a useful interaction primarily with neurosurgeons, but also with other allied health providers in neurooncology and radiation oncology. Our experience also dictates that diagnostic precision is required to the same degree when interacting with basic scientists who utilize tissue samples for brain tumor research.

The discipline of neuropathology is known for one of the highest discordance rates between the diagnoses of general surgical pathologists and trained neuropathologists. This book strives to underscore pitfalls in diagnostic surgical neuropathology, often due to mimicry between entirely different neoplasms or between reactive and neoplastic conditions. In the same sense, this book may be useful for general radiologists because of the detailed correlation we have sought to achieve between neuroimaging and many important neuropathological diseases.

Neuropathology, more so than other surgical pathology subspecialties, involves an extensive breadth of diagnostic entities with significant overlaps into hematopathology and the pathology of soft tissue tumors and infectious diseases.