gms | German Medical Science

62nd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
Joint Meeting with the Polish Society of Neurosurgeons (PNCH)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

7 - 11 May 2011, Hamburg

Glioblastoma in childhood – Treatment and outcome of 7 patients

Meeting Abstract

  • T. Burkhardt - Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • E. Pedram - Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • U. Kordes - Klinik für Pädiatrische Hämatologie und Onkologie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • J. Matschke - Institut für Neuropathologie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • J. Regelsberger - Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • M. Westphal - Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • G. Kammler - Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Polnische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgen. 62. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Polnischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgen (PNCH). Hamburg, 07.-11.05.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. DocDI.07.04

doi: 10.3205/11dgnc148, urn:nbn:de:0183-11dgnc1489

Published: April 28, 2011

© 2011 Burkhardt et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

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Objective: While glioblastoma is very common in adults and is the most common primary malignant brain tumour in this age group, it remains a rare diagnosis in children. Postoperative treatment of glioblastoma in adults is well standardized, but in children the treatment is under constant discussion and follows different types of study protocols (HIT-GBM A-D).

Methods: Treatment and outcome of 7 consecutive paediatric patients were retrospectively evaluated in order to determine the clinical course, median progression-free survival and overall survival.

Results: 7 patients were diagnosed and treated between 2000 and 2010. The median age was 9 years, all patients were under 16. All but one of the patients underwent open surgery; complete resection was performed in 2 cases, subtotal resection in 4 cases. One patient underwent stereotactic biopsy due to the depth of the lesion. Combined radio-chemotherapy was performed in all cases, using the HIT-GBM-C and -D and the HIT 2000 protocols as first-line therapy as well as Topotecan and Temozolomide as second-line chemotherapy for recurrent disease. Median survival in this cohort was 16 months. The progression-free survival was 3 months. Local tumour-recurrences were apparent in all cases. Median survival and progression-free survival in this small cohort did not correlate with extent of resection, depth of the lesion or the adjuvant regimen.

Conclusions: Survival of children with glioblastoma is being described as far better than in adults. Although we followed the common study protocols, we cannot confirm these results in this cohort, most probably due to the low case number.