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Pineal tumors: analysis of treatment results in 20
patients
Amendola BE, Wolf A, Coy SR, Amendola MA, Eber D
Miami Neuroscience Center, Coral Gables, Florida 33143, USA.
bamendola@internationalradonc.com
Object. The authors evaluate their results when using gamma knife surgery
(GKS) in the management of patients with tumors in the pineal region.
Methods. This is a retrospective clinical evaluation of 20 patients with
primary tumors of the pineal region treated with GKS from November 1994
through August 2003.
There were 13 germ cell tumors, two pineoblastomas, two
low-grade gliomas, one primitive neuroectodermal tumor, one teratoma, and
one pineocytoma.
There were 10 male and 10 female patients.
Their median age
was 15.5 years (range 5-71 years).
The median margin dose was 11 Gy (range
8-20 Gy).
The median target volume was 3.1 cm3 (range 0.1-49.9 cm3).
Five
patients received sequential systemic chemotherapy and four underwent
adjuvant conventional radiation therapy.
Seventeen (85%) of 20 patients are
alive with a median survival of 30.4 months (range 0-85.7 months).
Two
patients required retreatment.
Three patients died: one of unrelated causes,
one who presented with extensive local disease, and the other of meningeal
carcinomatosis with local control of the primary tumor.
No complications
from GKS were noted.
Conclusions. This initial experience suggests that GKS
is a valuable treatment modality for the management of pineal region tumors.
This technique offers excellent local tumor control and minimal patient
morbidity, allowing for immediate use of systemic chemotherapy and/or
conventional radiation if indicated.
PMID: 15662805 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15662805
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