Faculty Collaboration Database

Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma: case report and analysis of the literature concerning the efficacy of resection and the significance of necrosis. Neurosurgery 1996 Apr;38(4):822-8; discussion 828-9

Date

04/01/1996

Pubmed ID

8692406

DOI

10.1227/00006123-199604000-00038

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0029887716 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   95 Citations

Abstract

The case of a patient with a pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA), a low-grade glioma of adolescence, is presented. A literature review of 79 patients with PXAs is described and confirms a favorable prognosis in 80% of patients. The sex ratio in the reported cases was almost equal, and the median age at time of diagnosis was 14 years. Seventy-nine percent of the patients presented with seizures. Nine of the 15 deaths from PXA are associated with histological evidence of necrosis at initial presentation or in a recurrent tumor, confirming the poor prognosis associated with the presence of necrosis in these neoplasms. Survival curves confirm that the optimal treatment for PXAs without necrosis is primary surgical resection with subsequent operation for recurrent tumor. The roles of surgery or radiotherapy in necrotic PXA are not clear from the literature.

Author List

Pahapill PA, Ramsay DA, Del Maestro RF

Author

Peter A. Pahapill MD, PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Adult
Astrocytoma
Brain Neoplasms
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Necrosis
Parietal Lobe
Prognosis
Survival Rate