gms | German Medical Science

63rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
Joint Meeting with the Japanese Neurosurgical Society (JNS)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

13 - 16 June 2012, Leipzig

Glioma and pregnancy – Is it a problem?

Meeting Abstract

  • K. Franz - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
  • E. Hattingen - Institut für Neuroradiologie, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
  • V. Seifert - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
  • C. Senft - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Japanische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 63. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Japanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (JNS). Leipzig, 13.-16.06.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. DocSA.07.06

doi: 10.3205/12dgnc346, urn:nbn:de:0183-12dgnc3463

Published: June 4, 2012

© 2012 Franz 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: Optimization of the management of brain tumors (BT) has led to an improvement of prognosis. Thus, young women bearing BT often raise the question of whether or not becoming a child is harmful.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated data of all pregnant patients (pat.) in our prospectively collected database of brain tumor patients.

Results: 26 pregnancies occurred in 19 pat. harboring BT. Of these, 8 suffered from a high-grade glioma while 11 had a low-grade glioma. 23 pregnancies were fully carried out. BT was diagnosed in 8 patients during pregnancy. One patient with a subependymoma suffering a missed abortion is recurrence-free, another with ganglioglioma grade II did not show progression until now, one pat. with oligoastrocytoma (OA) II is stable under treatment. Two patients with glioma grade III died 6 weeks and 46 months after pregnancy, another with grade III glioma was progressive 133 months after pregnancy. One pat. with OA III is stable since pregnancy (81 months) another with glioblastoma (GBM) is stable 54 months after pregnancy In the other 11 pat. pregnancy occurred during the course of the disease. Progressive disease was observed in three pat.: one pat. 12 months after operation of an oligodendroglioma grade II (ODG II), one pat. 56 months after operation of an anaplastic OA and one pat. was pregnant 21 months after operation of a GBM. She died 7 months later. One patient got pregnant another 3 times despite ongoing malignisation of her OA II and died 2 weeks after cesarian of her fourth child. The other 9 are still living with stable disease 3 to 245 months after pregnancy.

Conclusions: BT per se should not prohibit pregnancy, since a negative influence on the course of the disease is not the rule. There is no proof that pregnancy is associated with tumor progression or recurrence. However, patients should be informed that tumor progression during pregnancy might occur. Especially in malignant gliomas the benefit-to-risk ratio should be carefully weighed. Further research regarding pregnancy related growth factor interactions with BT is warranted.