Utility of cerebrospinal fluid cytology in newly diagnosed childhood ependymoma.
The role of cytology of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has not been established in pediatric ependymoma. Thirty-two children with metastatic ependymoma were analyzed: 11 patients had only positive CSF cytology, 6 had only positive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, and 15 had both CSF cytology and MRI positive. Twenty-two patients relapsed. Five-year event-free survival was 27.3%+/-13.4% for children with only CSF positive (M1) versus 26.1%+/-10.2% for patients with positive spine MRI positive (with or without CSF positive, M3) (P=0.87). In conclusion, 34% of the patients with metastatic ependymoma were identified based on CSF cytology only and their outcome was comparable to patients with macroscopic disease. CSF cytology is a useful tool to stage newly diagnosed patients with ependymoma.
Moreno
Lucas
L
Department of Paediatrics, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, UK. lucasmorenomr@hotmail.com
Pollack
Ian F
IF
Duffner
Patricia K
PK
Geyer
J Russell
JR
Grill
Jacques
J
Massimino
Maura
M
Finlay
Jonathan L
JL
Zacharoulis
Stergios
S
D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004806:Ependymoma / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models