Abstract

Abstract OBJECTIVES To evaluate the potential role of emergency radiotherapy in intracranial germ cell tumors GCTs) patients with KPS ≤ 40. METHODS A total of 27 primary intracranial germ cell tumors (GCTs) patients with KPS ≤ 40 between Jan 2007 and Dec 2018 were retrospectively evaluated. The median age at initial diagnosis was 15 years (range, 528 years). Among those, 11 patients were germinoma and 16 patients were nonseminomatous germ-cell tumors (NGGCTs). There were 9 solitary pineal, 5 suprasellar, 3 basal ganglia and 10 multifocal and disseminated tumors. All patients received emergency radiotherapy (2 Gy/fx/d). Prior to radiotherapy, 11 patients were manifested with hydrocephalus, 10 with hypopituitarism and 5 with intracranial tumo apoplexy. RESULTS The average follow up time was 44.4 months. The 5 year progression free survival rate and overall survival rate were 29.6% and 33.3%. The median overall survival time was 38 months. In particular, the median intracranial hypertension symptoms relief time was 2 days. The median KPS following radiotherapy was 80 comparing to 30 prior to radiotherapy (P < 0.05). A significant improvement on KPS of 46.7±27.3 was observed in this study. CONCLUSION Emergency radiotherapy is implicated as a promising intervention for GCTs patients with elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). These advantages can be interpreted as direct cell killing effect and fast tumor shrinkage by ionizing radiation. However, to substantiate our findings, further investigations were highly warranted.

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