title: Utility of cerebrospinal fluid cytology in newly diagnosed childhood ependymoma.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, UK. lucasmorenomr@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.forename: Ian F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Pollack
authors.forename: Patricia K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Duffner
authors.forename: J Russell
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Geyer
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grill
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Massimino
authors.forename: Jonathan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Finlay
authors.forename: Stergios
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zacharoulis
mesh_terms: 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