Clinicopathological experience with pineocytomas

Abstract

The clinicopathological experience associated with five cases of pineocytoma is presented. All patients were treated by surgical removal without postoperative radiotherapy. In three individuals, 2000 cGy was administered to the tumor as a presurgical diagnostic test, with no evidence of response. All cases demonstrated histological features of pineocytoma, according to the criteria of Borit et al., and of the so-called "pineocytoma with neuronal differentiation," according to the criteria of Rubinstein. The experience obtained from the present series reveals that these tumors can occur in the initial decades of life, that a cystic appearance and the presence of calcifications are distinctive features of their radiological evaluation, and that they have a good prognosis after surgical removal, even when the histological data indicate local invasion. The convenience of reserving the term "pineocytoma" for these tumors, and of including the so-called "pineocytomas without further differentiation" within the group of pineoblastomas, is suggested in order to achieve a practical clinicopathological assessment of parenchymatous pineal tumors.

Long term outcome of adolescent and adult patients with pineal parenchymal tumors treated with fractionated radiotherapy between 1982 and 2003 -- a single institution's experience

“…Tumor size decreases by up to 70% and even complete regressions have been described [14] as well as excellent local tumor control rates of up to 100% for small tumors [10]. In an older analysis with only five patients, Vaquero et al [15] showed that postoperative radiation after surgical removal can be omitted, even in case of local invasion in PPTs with neuronal differentiation. Especially in older studies, pineocytomas, however, did sometimes not behave as benign as expected, particularly in younger patients [16-18].…”

Endoscopic removal of a central neurocytoma from the posterior third ventricle

“…1 Five-year survival rates after tumor subtotal resection with or without RT is around 80%; there was no statistically significant difference in overall survival among patients with or without post-operative radiation. 1,3,15,21,24,27,29,31,34,41,47,51,52 In the pre-microneurosurgical era, mortality rates after surgery for pineal region and posterior third ventricle tumours was high, between 50% and 70%, probably because of the critical location adjacent to the midbrain and the deep cerebral veins. 54,[67][68][69][70][71] Microsurgical techniques have significantly reduced mortality rates to about 2%.…”