Chemotherapy of pediatric brain-stem tumors

1981 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 721-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorcas S. Fulton ◽  
Victor A. Levin ◽  
William M. Wara ◽  
Michael S. Edwards ◽  
Charles B. Wilson

✓ Forty-five children harboring brain-stem tumors were treated at the University of California, San Francisco, between 1969 and 1979. Pathological diagnoses were made in 19 patients. All patients received radiation therapy (RT). Thirteen patients received chemotherapy before, during, or immediately after RT. Twenty-four patients were treated with chemotherapy at the time of tumor progression, after initial treatment with RT alone. No statistically significant difference in time to tumor progression or survival was found for treatment with chemotherapy as an adjuvant to RT compared to treatment with RT alone followed by chemotherapy administered at the time of tumor progression. There were, however, more long-term survivors in the group that was first treated with chemotherapy at the time of tumor progression. There was no statistically significant correlation between survival and tumor pathology or location, although there were more long-term survivors among patients harboring low-grade gliomas and among patients with tumors confined to the midbrain. The authors documented the response of some brain-stem tumors to chemotherapy; however, cooperative controlled studies will be required to determine the optimum treatment for this disease.

1975 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fransiska Lee

✓ A retrospective survey of 41 patients with unbiopsied thalamic, pontine, and medullary tumors treated with radiation therapy demonstrated 30% to 40% 3-year survival, with seven long-term survivors. Eleven of the 12 patients surviving over 3 years have essentially normal neurological function. Of seven patients in whom histological diagnoses were eventually obtained, four proved to have glioblastomas and three low-grade astrocytomas. Autopsy revealed that all glioblastomatous tumors extended beyond the treatment field; this suggested that larger volumes, perhaps the whole brain, should be irradiated. High doses (at least 5000 rads) should be used since the 3-year survival among those receiving such doses was 45%.


1991 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 740-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Mundinger ◽  
Dieter F. Braus ◽  
Joachim K. Krauss ◽  
Walter Birg

✓ Between 1974 and 1985, 89 patients suffering from histologically confirmed, nonresectable low-grade astrocytomas located in the brain stem were entered into a retrospective study. Iodine-125 (125I) was implanted in 29 patients and iridium-192 (192Ir) in 26 patients. Computerized tomography revealed that 78% of the tumors in these patients were located chiefly in the mesencephalic region, 70% were circumscribed, and 78% were contrast-enhanced. Thirty-four patients underwent biopsy without prior aggressive tumor-specific therapy such as chemotherapy or external beam irradiation. Among these, 70% of the tumors were located predominantly in the pons, 74% were diffuse, and 59% were hypodense or isodense after contrast enhancement. Long-term follow-up investigations indicated that life expectancy after interstitial radiation therapy with 125I implanted directly by catheter either permanently or temporarily showed a more favorable trend than that after treatment with 192Ir. Interstitial radiation therapy with 125I appears to be an effective treatment for slowly proliferating, differentiated, well-delineated, nonresectable brain-stem gliomas. This technique makes it possible to achieve radio-surgical tumor control and, when carefully applied, represents the least traumatic treatment. Reduction of the tumor mass brings about improvement of the clinical symptoms. Further investigations on the biological behavior of brain-stem gliomas and prospective randomized long-term follow-up studies are necessary to evaluate the different kinds of treatment available for these patients.


2004 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Skowronska-Gardas ◽  
Katarzyna Pedziwiatr ◽  
Marzanna Chojnacka

1993 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Pierre-Kahn ◽  
Jean-François Hirsch ◽  
Mathieu Vinchon ◽  
Christine Payan ◽  
Christian Sainte-Rose ◽  
...  

A study was made of 75 children treated between 1970 and 1990, with partial, subtotal, or total removal of three intrinsic and 72 exophytic or surface brain-stem tumors. In all cases, the goal of surgery was to remove as much tumor as possible. Extent of removal was defined according to data obtained from postoperative computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, and was considered partial when only a small amount of tumor was removed, subtotal when a few cubic millimeters of tumor was left, and total when no residual tumor was seen on postoperative radiological investigations. An ultrasonic aspirator was used for the 43 most recent operations. Among tumor removals without the aspirator, 24 (75%) were partial, eight (25%) subtotal, and none total; with the use of the aspirator, the number of partial removals decreased to 44.5% while that of subtotal and total removals increased to 32% and 23.5%, respectively. There were 69 gliomas (92%) and 47 benign tumors (62.6%). Forty-nine patients were irradiated postoperatively, and 14 of the 23 patients whose benign tumors were removed totally or subtotally did not undergo irradiation. This study showed that: 1) the overall prognosis of patients with malignant tumors was poor and was not improved by surgery; 2) the survival rate of those with benign tumors was significantly (p < 0.01) lower after partial removal than after total or subtotal removal (52% and 94%, respectively, at 5 years); 3) comparison of means and proportions (Student's and chi-squared tests) between benign and malignant tumors showed a significant difference relating to patient age (p < 0.03), peritumoral hypodensity (p < 0.001), and preoperative duration of symptoms (p < 0.001); 4) stepwise logistic regression analysis confirmed that two of these three variables were related to malignancy: namely, patient age at surgery (p < 0.03) and presence of peritumoral hypodensity (p < 0.001); and 5) routine postoperative irradiation was contraindicated after total or subtotal removal of benign tumors.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Martin ◽  
Christopher J. Hammond ◽  
H. Jane Dobbs ◽  
Safa Al-Sarraj ◽  
Nicholas W. M. Thomas

✓ Long-term survivors of Hodgkin disease may develop second primary tumors caused by the mutagenic effects of radio- and chemotherapy. The authors describe the case of a 35-year-old woman who presented with an unusual meningioma of the cervical spine 9 years after undergoing combined-modality treatment for Hodgkin disease. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of spinal meningioma as a complication of such therapy. Whereas radiation-induced intracranial meningiomas are well described in the literature, treatment-induced meningiomas of the spine have not been widely recognized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 369
Author(s):  
Joseph Cherabie ◽  
Patrick Mazi ◽  
Adriana M. Rauseo ◽  
Chapelle Ayres ◽  
Lindsey Larson ◽  
...  

Histoplasmosis is a common opportunistic infection in people with HIV (PWH); however, no study has looked at factors associated with the long-term mortality of histoplasmosis in PWH. We conducted a single-center retrospective study on the long-term mortality of PWH diagnosed with histoplasmosis between 2002 and 2017. Patients were categorized into three groups based on length of survival after diagnosis: early mortality (death < 90 days), late mortality (death ≥ 90 days), and long-term survivors. Patients diagnosed during or after 2008 were considered part of the modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) era. Insurance type (private vs. public) was a surrogate indicator of socioeconomic status. Out of 54 PWH infected with histoplasmosis, overall mortality was 37%; 14.8% early mortality and 22.2% late mortality. There was no statistically significant difference in survival based on the availability of modern ART (p = 0.60). Insurance status reached statistical significance with 38% of survivors having private insurance versus only 8% having private insurance in the late mortality group (p = 0.05). High mortality persists despite the advent of modern ART, implicating a contribution from social determinants of health, such as private insurance. Larger studies are needed to elucidate the role of these factors in the mortality of PWH.


Author(s):  
Lei Yu ◽  
Guozhong Zhang ◽  
Songtao Qi

Abstract Background and Study Aims The exact reason of long-term survival in glioblastoma (GBM) patients has remained uncertain. Molecular parameters in addition to histology to define malignant gliomas are hoped to facilitate clinical, experimental, and epidemiological studies. Material and Methods A population of GBM patients with similar clinical characteristics (especially similar resectability) was reviewed to compare the molecular variables between poor (overall survival [OS] < 18 months, control cohort) and long-term survivors (overall survival > 36 months, OS-36 cohort). Results Long-term GBM survivors were younger. In the OS-36 cohort, the positive rate of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation was very low (7.69%, 3/39) and there was no statistical difference in OS between IDH mutant and wild-type patients. The results of 1p/19q codeletions are similar. Besides, there were no significant difference in MGMT promoter methylation, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutation, and TP53 mutations between OS-36 cohort and control cohort. Conclusions No distinct markers consistently have been identified in long-term survivors of GBM patients, and great importance should be attached to further understand the biological characteristics of the invasive glioma cells because of the nature of diffuse tumor permeation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Rajeev D. Sen ◽  
Isaac Josh Abecassis ◽  
Jason Barber ◽  
Michael R. Levitt ◽  
Louis J. Kim ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVE Brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) most commonly present with rupture and intraparenchymal hemorrhage. In rare cases, the hemorrhage is large enough to cause clinical herniation or intractable intracranial hypertension. Patients in these cases require emergent surgical decompression as a life-saving measure. The surgeon must decide whether to perform concurrent or delayed resection of the bAVM. Theoretical benefits to concurrent resection include a favorable operative corridor created by the hematoma, avoiding a second surgery, and more rapid recovery and rehabilitation. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical and surgical outcomes of patients who had undergone concurrent emergent decompression and bAVM resection with those of patients who had undergone delayed bAVM resection. METHODS The authors conducted a 15-year retrospective review of consecutive patients who had undergone microsurgical resection of a ruptured bAVM at their institution. Patients presenting in clinical herniation or with intractable intracranial hypertension were included and grouped according to the timing of bAVM resection: concurrent with decompression (hyperacute group) or separate resection surgery after decompression (delayed group). Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded. Groups were compared in terms of the primary outcomes of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) lengths of stay (LOSs). Secondary outcomes included complete obliteration (CO), Glasgow Coma Scale score, and modified Rankin Scale score at discharge and at the most recent follow-up. RESULTS A total of 35/269 reviewed patients met study inclusion criteria; 18 underwent concurrent decompression and resection (hyperacute group) and 17 patients underwent emergent decompression only with later resection of the bAVM (delayed group). Hyperacute and delayed groups differed only in the proportion that underwent preresection endovascular embolization (16.7% vs 76.5%, respectively; p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the hyperacute and delayed groups in hospital LOS (26.1 vs 33.2 days, respectively; p = 0.93) or ICU LOS (10.6 vs 16.1 days, respectively; p = 0.69). Rates of CO were also comparable (78% vs 88%, respectively; p > 0.99). Medical complications were similar in the two groups (33% hyperacute vs 41% delayed, p > 0.99). Short-term clinical outcomes were better for the delayed group based on mRS score at discharge (4.2 vs 3.2, p < 0.05); however, long-term outcomes were similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS Ruptured bAVM rarely presents in clinical herniation requiring surgical decompression and hematoma evacuation. Concurrent surgical decompression and resection of a ruptured bAVM can be performed on low-grade lesions without compromising LOS or long-term functional outcome; however, the surgeon may encounter a more challenging surgical environment.


1992 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael M. Haglund ◽  
Mitchel S. Berger ◽  
Dennis D. Kunkel ◽  
JoAnn E. Franck ◽  
Saadi Ghatan ◽  
...  

✓ The role of specific neuronal populations in epileptic foci was studied by comparing epileptic and nonepileptic cortex removed from patients with low-grade gliomas. Epileptic and nearby (within 1 to 2 cm) nonepileptic temporal lobe neocortex was identified using electrocorticography. Cortical specimens taken from four patients identified as epileptic and nonepileptic were all void of tumor infiltration. Somatostatin- and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABAergic)-immunoreactive neurons were identified and counted. Although there was no significant difference in the overall cell count, the authors found a significant decrease in both somatostatin- and GABAergic-immunoreactive neurons (74% and 51 %, respectively) in the epileptic cortex compared to that in nonepileptic cortex from the same patient. It is suggested that these findings demonstrate changes in neuronal subpopulations that may account for the onset and propagation of epileptiform activity in patients with low-grade gliomas.


1987 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Derek T. Jenkin ◽  
Carl Boesel ◽  
Inta Ertel ◽  
Audrey Evans ◽  
Robert Hittle ◽  
...  

✓ Seventy-four children with a brain-stem tumor diagnosed between 1977 and 1980 were entered into a prospective study in which exploration and assessment for resection were optional, radiation treatment using standard methods was required, and randomization occurred with regard to the use of adjuvant chemotherapy (l-(2-chloroethyl)-l-nitrosourea, vincristine, and prednisone) or no further treatment. The overall 5-year survival rate was 20% and was not improved by the adjuvant chemotherapy program. An increased risk of infection was associated with the adjuvant therapy.


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