title: Two cases of pediatric high-grade astroblastoma with different clinical behavior.
abstract: Astroblastoma is a rare glial tumor occurring in older children and defined by histological criteria as low or high-grade. We describe two children with high-grade astroblastoma. The first patient, with multiple recurrences of a frontoparietal tumor, died 10 years from diagnosis after progression of the disease despite surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The second patient underwent subtotal resection of a temporal mass; the residual tumor progressed five months after radiotherapy, but after a subsequent gross total resection the patient is now in complete remission 54 months from diagnosis. Although both patients had high-grade astroblastomas, there were histological differences between the two tumors, in particular regarding the proliferative index, which was 30% and 5-10%, respectively. High-grade astroblastoma is usually treated with surgery and radiotherapy, but may have an unpredictable behavior even when tumor excision is deemed complete. The two cases reported here illustrate the variable clinical course of this rare tumor. The proliferative index may be a useful tool to better define prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Oncology, Catholic University Rome, Italy. stefano.mastrangelo@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mastrangelo
authors.forename: Libero
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lauriola
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coccia
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Puma
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Massimi
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Riccardi
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D002648:Child; D016371:Cranial Irradiation; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018302:Neoplasms, Neuroepithelial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult