|
|
 |
 |
| |
 Printable version |
Diffuse medulla oblongata and pontine gliomas in childhood. A review of 37 cases |
Bulletin du Cancer. Volume 91, Number 6, 10167-83, Juin 2004, Electronic journal of oncology
|
 Free Article
|
Author(s) : Christian CARRIE, Sylvie NEGRIER, Frédéric GOMEZ, Philippe THIESSE, Carmine MOTTOLESE, Didier FRAPPAZ, Eric BOUFFET |
Summary : From 1975 to 1997, thirty seven newly diagnosed children aged 2 mos. to 14.3 years with diffuse medulla oblongata or pontine tumours were referred to the Centre Léon Bérard. Surgical biopsies were performed in 9 patients. All but one received radiation therapy. The mean dose of radiation was 53 Gy. Thirty two received chemotherapy. All patients died, one from related toxicity, and the rest from progressive disease. Relapses always occurred in the radiotherapy field. Medulla oblongata and pontine tumours would appear to have the worst outcome of all brain stem gliomas and should be separately analysed. The term brainstem glioma (BSG) describe tumours which occur in the medulla oblongata (MO), pons and mid brain. They constitute 10 to 15 % of all intracranial tumours in childhood (1-2). Most of them are gliomas (1). Despite numerous clinical trials of chemotherapy, hyperfractionated radiation therapy, or combination of both, the outcome of these patients remains uniformly poor with a median of survival of 10 to 15 months (3-4). It has been suggested that diffuse pontine and medulla oblongata tumours have the worst prognosis and should analysed separately (3,5). We report 37 cases of diffuse pontine and medulla oblongata tumours treated in a single institution over an 22 year period. Copyright John Libbey Eurotext 2003. |
Keywords : |
|
