Abstract
The 5 year survival rate of patients with pineal tumor has been reported to be between 25 and 79% in the literature (Abay et al. 1981). One of the reasons for this wide variation may be the different therapeutic regimens chosen by each neurosurgeon. The most important reason, however, might be the fact that the treated tumors in each series consisted of histologically different types. Pineal tumors include germ cell tumors, pineoblastomas, pineocytomas, gliomas, and other cystic tumors, and they show different responses to treatments. Recently, specific tumor markers such as alphafetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) were reported to be useful indicators for the management of intracranial germ cell tumors (Allen et al. 1979; Arita et al. 1980; Arita 1985). In this report, we discuss the rational treatment of tumors in the pineal region, especially the surgical indications and the role of tumor markers in the management of germ cell tumors.
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Arita, N. et al. (1986). Tumor Markers: Their Role and Limit for Management of Pineal Tumor. In: Samii, M. (eds) Surgery in and around the Brain Stem and the Third Ventricle. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71240-1_38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71240-1_38
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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