Treatment outcomes for pediatric pineoblastoma: a single institute experience in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: Our purpose was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of pediatric pineoblastoma patients after multimodality treatment. Methods: The medical records of 11 children with pineoblastomas treated at Taipei Veterans General Hospital between 1991 and 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. There were 7 females (63.6%) and 4 males (36.4%) with a median age at diagnosis of 5.25 years (range, 1.47-16.8 years). Age, sex, symptoms, pathological findings, treatment modalities, failure patterns, recurrence date, death date, and toxicities were recorded. Survival curves were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method, and univariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify possible risk factors. Results: The median overall survival was 2.3 years, with 2-and 5-year survival rates of 63.6% and 36.4%, respectively. Eight patients (72.7%) died after serial treatments, and extensive seeding with multi-organ failure was the most common failure pattern. Three patients (27.2%) were alive without disease recurrence. Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed a significant difference (P<0.05) when compared by age at diagnosis (over or under 3 years old) (P=0.0014). Two out of the three long-term survivors received stereotactic biopsy, craniospinal irradiation (CSI) with focal boost, and chemotherapy without radical surgery. Conclusions: Our results showed survival was associated with age at diagnosis. Long-term survival can be achieved for patients who receive radiotherapy plus chemotherapy. Further studies are needed to determine the best treatment options for pediatric pineoblastoma patients.

Development and Validation of a Prognostic Nomogram to Predict Cancer-Specific Survival in Adult Patients With Pineoblastoma

“…and children under 3 years of age who were treated according to infant brain tumor protocols with intensive chemotherapy alone (33). Surprisingly, Kang et al (44) in their study found that long-term survival can be achieved for patients who received multimodality treatment, and the results of their study revealed that the median overall survival was 2.3 years, with 2-and 5-year survival rates of 63.6 and 36.4%, respectively, after multimodality treatment. Lee et al (1) treated 34 adult patients with PB with cranial irradiation therapy and complete surgical resection, and the median survival time was 25.7 months.…”

Post-Surgical Prognosis of Patients with Pineoblastoma: A Systematic Review and Individual Patient Data Analysis with Trends over Time

“…Of the 2701 articles retrieved in the search, 44 studies with IPD on 298 patients with pineoblastoma were included in the systematic review ( Table 1 ) [ 5 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ]. Figure 1 presents the PRISMA flowchart for this systematic review [ 18 ].…”