Epidemiology of brain tumors in children aged two and under: A 10-year single-institute study

Yu,Jianzhong; Shi,We; Zhao,Rui; Gao,Xiaofeng; Li,Hao

doi:10.3892/ol.2015.2943

Epidemiology of brain tumors in children aged two and under: A 10-year single-institute study

Authors:
- Jianzhong Yu
- We Shi
- Rui Zhao
- Xiaofeng Gao
- Hao Li
View Affiliations

Affiliations: Department of Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, P.R. China
Published online on: February 9, 2015 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2015.2943
Pages: 1651-1656

Metrics: Total Views: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )

Metrics: Total PDF Downloads: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )

Cited By (CrossRef): 0 citations Loading Articles...

Abstract

The aim of present study was to evaluate the incidence, clinical symptoms, pathological characteristics, surgical treatment strategies and prognosis of brain tumors in children aged two and under. The current study obtained data regarding 32 consecutive infants and young children aged two years and under, who were treated for brain tumors in the Children's Hospital of Fudan University (Shanghai, China) between 2003 and 2013. The types of tumor, clinical manifestations, location, histological features, applied treatment strategies and outcomes were retrospectively evaluated. The male to female ratio was 1.13:1, and among a total of 32 tumors, 14 (43.8%) were suptratentorial and 18 (56.3%) were infratentorial. Intracranial hypertension was the most common onset symptom, and astrocytoma was the most common tumor type (10 cases; 31.3%), followed by ependymoma (nine cases; 28.1%) and medulloblastoma (six cases; 18.8%). Surgical tumor resection was performed in 20 patients (62.5%), who experienced a mean post‑operative survival time of 67.6 months. By contrast, conservative treatment with medications was administered in 12 patients (37.5%), with a mean survival time of 25.3 months. Furthermore, four patients underwent conservative therapy combined with ventriculoperitoneal shunting to relieve intracranial pressure arising from cerebrospinal fluid accumulation, resulting in a mean survival time of 10.5 months. In conclusion, the present study indicates that surgical tumor resection may improve the overall prognosis of infants and young children aged two years and under who presented with brain tumors. In addition, ventriculoperitoneal shunts may facilitate pre‑ and post‑operative improvement in clinical symptoms by relieving intracranial pressure; however, the shunts do not appear to increase long‑term survival. Furthermore, high surgical risk is an important prognostic factor in this pediatric patient population.

View Figures

View References

1	Baldwin RT and Preston-Martin S: Epidemiology of brain tumors in childhood - a review. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 199:118–131. 2004. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
2	Magnani C, Aareleid T, Viscomi S, Pastore G and Berrino F; EUROCARE Working Group. Variation in survival of children with central nervous system (CNS) malignancies diagnosed in Europe between 1978 and 1992: the EUROCARE study. Eur J Cancer. 37:711–721. 2001. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
3	Macedoni-Luksic M, Jereb B and Todorovski L: Long-term sequelae in children treated for brain tumors: impairments, disability, and handicap. Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 20:89–101. 2003. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
4	Aarsen FK, Paquier PF, Reddingius RE, Streng IC, Arts WF, Evera-Preesman M and Catsman-Berrevoets CE: Functional outcome after low-grade astrocytoma treatment in childhood. Cancer. 106:396–402. 2006. View Article : Google Scholar
5	Raaschou-Nielsen O, Sørensen M, Carstensen H, Jensen T, Bernhardtsen T, Gjerris F and Schmiegelow K: Increasing incidence of childhood tumours of the central nervous system in Denmark, 1980–1996. Br J Cancer. 95:416–422. 2006. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
6	Sala F, Colarusso E, Mazza C, Talacchi A and Bricolo A: Brain tumors in children under 3 years of age. Recent experience (1987–1997) in 39 patients. Pediatr Neurosurg. 31:16–26. 1999. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
7	Isaacs H Jr: I. Perinatal brain tumors: a review of 250 cases. Pediatr Neurol. 27:249–261. 2002. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
8	Bishop AJ, McDonald MW, Chang AL and Esiashvili N: Infant brain tumors: incidence, survival, and the role of radiation based on Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Data. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 82:341–347. 2012. View Article : Google Scholar
9	Johnson MW, Eberhart CG, Perry A, Tihan T, Cohen KJ, Rosenblum MK, Rais-Bahrami S, Goldthwaite P and Burger PC: Spectrum of pilomyxoid astrocytomas: intermediate pilomyxoid tumors. Am J Surg Pathol. 34:1783–1791. 2010. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
10	Furuta T, Tabuchi A, Adachi Y, Mizumatsu S, Tamesa N, Ichikawa T, Tamiya T, Matsumoto K and Ohmoto T: Primary brain tumors in children under age 3 years. Brain Tumor Pathol. 15:7–12. 1998. View Article : Google Scholar
11	Hanieh S, Hanieh A, Bourne AJ and Byard RW: Brain tumours in infancy: a clinicopathological study. J Clin Neurosci. 4:181–185. 1997. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
12	Larouche V, Huang A, Bartels U and Bouffet E: Tumors of the central nervous system in the first year of life. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 49(Suppl): 1074–1082. 2007. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
13	DiRosso C, Ianelli A and Papacci F: Infantile brain tumors. Tumors of the Pediatric Central Nervous System. 2. Keating RF, Goodrich JT and Packer R: Thieme; New York: pp. 3942013
14	Magdum SA: Neonatal brain tumours - a review. Early Hum Dev. 86:627–631. 2010. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
15	Thorp N: Basic principles of paediatric radiotherapy. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 25:3–10. 2013. View Article : Google Scholar
16	Kim YH, Song SW, Lee JY, et al: Surgically treated brain tumors: a retrospective case series of 10,009 cases at a single institution. World Neurosurg. 76:555–563. 2011. View Article : Google Scholar
17	Soriano SG, Eldredge EA and Rockoff MA: Pediatric neuroanesthesia. Anesthesiol Clin North America. 20:389–404. 2002. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
18	Gaggero R, Consales A, Fazzini F, et al: Epilepsy associated with supratentorial brain tumors under 3 years of life. Epilepsy Res. 87:184–189. 2009. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
19	Louis DN, Ohgaki H, Wiestler OD, Cavenee WK, Burger PC, Jouvet A, Scheithauer BW and Kleihues P: The 2007 WHO classification of tumours of the central nervous system. Acta Neuropathol. 114:97–109. 2007. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
20	Dunham C, Pillai S and Steinbok P: Infant brain tumors: a neuropathologic population-based institutional reappraisal. Hum Pathol. 43:1668–1676. 2012. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
21	Ramanan M and Chaseling R: Paediatric brain tumours treated at a single, tertiary paediatric neurosurgical referral centre from 1999 to 2010 in Australia. J Clin Neurosci. 19:1387–1391. 2012. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
22	Ibrahim K and Appleton R: Seizures as the presenting symptom of brain tumours in children. Seizure. 13:108–112. 2004. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
23	Balestrini MR, Micheli R, et al: Brain tumors with symptomatic onset in the first two years of life. Childs Nerv Syst. 10:104–110. 1994. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
24	Rickert CH, Probst-Cousin S and Gullotta F: Primary intracranial neoplasms of infancy and early childhood. Childs Nerv Syst. 13:507–513. 1997. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
25	Rangwala LM and Liu GT: Pediatric idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Surv Ophthalmol. 52:597–617. 2007. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
26	Cohen BH: Headaches as a symptom of neurological disease. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2:144–150. 1995. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
27	Fleming AJ and Chi SN: Brain tumors in children. Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care. 42:80–103. 2012. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
28	Orbach D, Sarnacki S, Brisse HJ, et al: Neonatal cancer. Lancet Oncol. 14:e609–e620. 2013. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
29	Khan SN and Sepahdari AR: Orbital masses: CT and MRI of common vascular lesions, benign tumors, and malignancies. Saudi J Ophthalmol. 26:373–383. 2012. View Article : Google Scholar
30	Parmar HA, Pruthi S, Ibrahim M and Gandhi D: Imaging of congenital brain tumors. Semin Ultrasound CT MR. 32:578–589. 2011. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
31	Koob M and Girard N: Cerebral tumors: specific features in children. Diagn Interv Imaging. 95:965–983. 2014. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
32	McGirt MJ, Chaichana KL, Gathinji M, et al: Independent association of extent of resection with survival in patients with malignant brain astrocytoma. J Neurosurg. 110:156–162. 2009. View Article : Google Scholar
33	Khalil EM: Treatment results of adults and children with medulloblastoma NCI, Cairo University experience. J Egypt Natl Canc Inst. 20:175–186. 2008.PubMed/NCBI
34	Vabulas M, Kumar VA, Hamilton JD, Martinez JJ, Rao G, Sawaya R and Prabhu SS: Real-time atlas-based stereotactic neuronavigation. Neurosurgery. 74:128–134. 2014. View Article : Google Scholar
35	Steinbok P, Mangat JS, Kerr JM, Sargent M, Suryaningtyas W, Singhal A and Cochrane D: Neurological morbidity of surgical resection of pediatric cerebellar astrocytomas. Childs Nerv Syst. 29:1269–1275. 2013. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
36	Roujeau T, Di Rocco F, Dufour C, et al: Shall we treat hydrocephalus associated to brain stem glioma in children? Childs Nerv Syst. 27:1735–1739. 2011. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
37	Han YP, Zhao Y, He XG and Ma J: Peritoneal metastasis of third ventricular atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor after VP shunt implantation for unexplained hydrocephalus. World J Pediatr. 8:367–370. 2012. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI
38	Garzón M, García-Fructuoso G, Guillén A, Suñol M, Mora J and Cruz O: Brain stem tumors in children and adolescents: single institutional experience. Childs Nerv Syst. 29:1321–1331. 2013. View Article : Google Scholar : PubMed/NCBI