A single-center study of treatment outcomes of pediatric basal ganglia germinoma in Taiwan

[Clinical analysis of 30 cases of basal ganglia germinoma in children]

OBJECTIVE

To summarize and analyze the clinical characteristics of children with basal ganglia germinoma and to improve the level of early clinical diagnosis.

METHODS

The clinical data of children diagnosed with basal ganglia germinoma admitted to the Pediatric Surgery Ward of Peking University First Hospital from January 2013 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the clinical characteristics of children with basal ganglia germinoma.

RESULTS

A total of 30 patients were included in the study, 28 were male, 2 were female, the mean age at onset was (9.7±2.2) years, the median disease duration was 7 months, 27 had unilateral disease, and 3 had bilateral disease. The clinical manifestations were decreased limb muscle strength, cognitive function disorders, polydipsia, precocious puberty, intracranial hypertension, dysphonia and swallowing dysfunction. The serum and cerebrospinal fluid tumor marker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were normal in the 30 patients, and the serum and cerebrospinal fluid tumor marker β-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-HCG) were normal in 8 patients.The serum β-HCG was normal in 11 patients but the cerebrospinal fluid β-HCG was slightly elevated, and the serum and cerebrospinal fluid β-HCG were slightly elevated in 11 patients. A total of 33 lesions with irregular shapes were found by imaging examination, including 15 (45.5%) patchy lesions, 10 (30.3%) patchy lesions, and 8 (24.2%) round-like high-density lesions. Tumors showed obvious high-density shadows on computed tomography (CT) scan. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the tumors showed low or isointensity on T1WI and isointensity on T2WI, accompanied by mild peritumoral edema, hemispheric atrophy, cerebral peduncle atrophy, calcification, cystic degeneration, ventricular dilatation and wallerian degeneration. On contrast-enhanced scans, the tumor showed no enhancement or heterogeneous enhancement.

CONCLUSION

The main age of onset of germ cell tumors in the basal ganglia in children is about 10 years old, and males are absolutely dominant. The clinical features and imaging manifestations have certain characteristics. With both combined, the early diagnosis of germ cell tumors in the basal ganglia can be improved.

Bifocal lesions have a poorer treatment outcome than a single lesion in adult patients with intracranial germinoma

Intracranial germinoma (IG) rarely occurs in adults. Its optimal treatment strategy is unclear. We evaluated the outcomes of radiotherapy in adults with intracranial germinoma. Data of 29 adult patients (age, 18–52 years; median age, 24.3 years) with IG treated with radiotherapy at Taipei Veterans General Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. They were followed up for a median time of 5.9 years (range, 1.0–12.8 years). We used the Kaplan–Meier method to estimate the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models to identify the factors affecting PFS. PFS and OS were compared between adult and pediatric patients with IG. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year PFS rates were 96.6%, 85.8%, and 77.8%, respectively, in the adult patients, and the OS rate were all 100%. Seven patients (24.1%) experienced recurrence, and in six of them, salvage therapy successfully controlled the disease. Two patients (6.9%) died after 5 years of follow-up due to disease progression and central pontine myelinolysis. In the univariate and multivariate Cox analysis, bifocal lesions had a significantly lower PFS than those with single lesions (p = 0.008). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that adult patients had a poorer PFS (p = 0.06) and OS (p = 0.025) than pediatric patients. Our study showed bifocal lesions were associated with lower PFS than a single lesion among adult IG patients, and adult IG patients tended to have poorer PFS and OS compared to pediatric IG patients. For adult patients with bifocal IG, we recommend treatment with craniospinal irradiation, whole ventricle irradiation (WVI) with chemotherapy, or frequent spine images follow-up for patients who received only WVI.

Relapse pattern and quality of life in patients with localized basal ganglia germinoma receiving focal radiotherapy, whole-brain radiotherapy, or craniospinal irradiation

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The optimal target volume in localized basal ganglia (BG) germinoma is still undetermined. Thus, based on the relapse pattern and health-related quality of life (HRQOL), we evaluated three target volumes.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The clinical data of 161 patients with localized BG germinoma were included in this retrospective study. Relapse status and relapse sites after treatment were explored. HRQOL was evaluated using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 (PedsQL 4.0) (≤15 years) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) (>15 years) questionnaires based on the patients' age at last follow-up.

RESULTS

After a median follow-up duration of 83 months (range, 20-214 months), 19 patients experienced relapse, including 15, 4, and 0 patients in the focal radiotherapy (FR) (n = 35), whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) plus boost (n = 109), and craniospinal irradiation (CSI) plus boost (n = 17) groups, respectively. The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 74.3%, 97.2%, and 100%, respectively (p < 0.001). Among the 15 patients who relapsed after FR, 14 had positive radiological findings, including seven (50.0%) with lesions in the periventricular area and seven (50.0%) with frontal lobe lesions. Relapse in both these areas were significantly reduced by WBRT or CSI. HRQOL data were available for 69 patients, who generally scored low. Among 38 patients evaluated by SF-36, those receiving CSI had significantly lower mental component scores than those receiving WBRT (p = 0.027) or FR (p = 0.011).

CONCLUSIONS

Considering both disease control and HRQOL, WBRT is the optimal target volume in our series. The relapse pattern identified in patients receiving FR is informative for further treatment volume optimization.