Editorial: Impact of radiotherapy and radiosurgery on neuro-oncology

Radiotherapy is one of the main pillars of neuro-oncology. Used universally in all malignant neoplasms affecting the central nervous system, it is increasingly adopted as an alternative to surgical treatment in numerous malignant and benign lesions including brain metastases (BM), meningiomas, vestibular schwannomas, pituitary adenomas or paragangliomas. The clinical settings in which a radiotherapy treatment is indispensable are, in fact, innumerable and at least in three different scenarios: as a preoperative (or neoadjuvant) treatment, as a postoperative (or adjuvant) treatment, and as a rescue therapy. Furthermore, in many circumstances, radiation therapy is used as a primary or upfront treatment as an alternative to surgical management. This broadening of the indications in the use of ionizing radiation in neuro-oncology has been made possible by the astonishing technological evolution that has been witnessed in the last two decades together with the availability of clinical results that have definitively demonstrated the efficacy of radiation treatments,