Prognostic Factor in Children with Brain Tumor

Abstract

Introduction: Central nervous system (CNS) tumors are the second most common cancer among children and the main solid tumor in childhood, It affects about 21.3% of all children with malignant diseases .¹

Objectives: To estimate survival and evaluate prognostic factors of pediatric patients with brain tumors treated in Damascus pediatric hospital.

Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study  of 134 children with primary brain tumors diagnosed consecutively from 1 January 2005 to 1 January 2010. Cox regression was used for multivariate analysis of factors that affect overall survival to define possible prognostic factors and their roll a survival.

Results: Median and mean ages were 7.2 and 7.6 years respectively. There was a male predominance compared to female (1.27:1). Most patients had medulloblastomas or primitive  neuroectodermal tumors (39%), or low-grade astrocytomas (18%). The anatomic site of most tumors was the cerebellum (48%) and the brain stem (22%). Five-year survival after diagnosis was 81% for low-grade astrocytomas and 49% for medulloblastomas and primitive neuroectodermal( PNET). Prognostic factors for overall survival were histopathological type (high-grade astrocytomas and ependymomas; hazard ratio = 3.6 to 3.9), surgery (hazard ratio of 0.5 for completely resected tumors) and radiotherapy (hazard ratio of 0.5 for patients who underwent radiotherapy).

Conclusions: Overall survival of pediatric patients with brain tumors in this study was similar to that found in populations of the other places in the world . The prognostic factors defined for overall survival are also similar to those published in previous studies.