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Treatment of Pediatric Optic-Hypothalamic Gliomas: Prognosis

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Pediatric Cancer, Volume 2

Part of the book series: Pediatric Cancer ((PECA,volume 2))

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Abstract

Pediatric optic-hypothalamic gliomas (POHGs) have a favorable prognosis with regards to the long-term survival if compared with other pediatric tumors of the central nervous system. Indeed, in spite of the high rate of tumor progression, POHGs can reach a 10-year overall survival more than 80% in many series. The reasons of such a good survival are the indolent course and/or the favorable location (Dodge I tumors) showed by some of them, the lower trend of progression in case of associated neurofibromatosis type 1, and the good response to integrated therapies.

On the other hand, the long-term clinical outcome of affected children strongly contrasts with the survival because of the involvement of the chiasm and the hypothalamus by the tumor and the sequelae of treatment. Unilateral or bilateral severe loss of vision/visual field amputation, neurological deficits, chronic endocrine imbalance, and neuropsychological impairment actually make the quality of life of POHGs patients poor in most of the cases.

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  1. Institute of Neurosurgery-Pediatric Neurosurgery, A. Gemelli Hospital, Largo A. Gemelli 8, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Luca Massimi

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  1. Luca Massimi
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Correspondence to Luca Massimi .

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  1. , Kean University, Room 213, Library building, Morris Avenue 1000, Union, 07083, New Jersey, USA

    M.A. Hayat

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Massimi, L. (2012). Treatment of Pediatric Optic-Hypothalamic Gliomas: Prognosis. In: Hayat, M. (eds) Pediatric Cancer, Volume 2. Pediatric Cancer, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2957-5_28

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