title: Characteristics of intracranial meningiomas in childhood.
abstract: 18 cases of meningiomas in childhood below the age of 15 years at the onset of symptoms and signs were experienced in our clinic. They were studied as for the incidence, age and sex distributions, symptoms and signs at the onset, tumor locations, histological types, presence of cyst, dural attachments, and prognosis, in comparison with cases in adolescence (18 cases) and in adults (498 cases). Distinctive features in childhood meningiomas were: (1) relatively high incidence in the lateral ventricles (11.1%), (2) high incidence of cyst formation in the tumor (16.7%), and (3) of cases without any dural attachment (12.5%). These features were statistically significant as compared to adult cases (p less than 0.05). Features 1 and 2 were also true for adolescence cases. It was also revealed that male patients were predominant in childhood and adolescence (M:F = 10.8) in contrast to female predominance in adults (M:F = 1:1.6). The most frequent histological type was sarcomatous type (6 out of 18). It may be of interest that 3 cases of this malignant type have been alive for more than 10 years.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008577:Meningeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008579:Meningioma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011379:Prognosis; D012737:Sex Factors