Objective To evaluate the impact of H3K27M mutation in the prognosis of histological high-grade intramedullary astrocytoma.
Methods A total of 78 patients who were diagnosed with high-grade spinal cord astrocytoma were included. Clinical data consisting demographic, radiological, molecular features and treatment data were recorded. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis were performed to investigate variables associated with survival outcome of histological high-grade spinal cord astrocytoma.
Results Median survival time was 21 months. Overall survival (OS) at 1 and 3 years was 65.7% and 40.7%, respectively. Sex, location, and tumor span did not present significant association with OS. Patients with H3K27M mutation showed significant shorter duration of symptom than patients with H3K27 wild-type. As respect to adjuvant treatment, adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy were associated with favorable OS (both p = 0.01). Younger patients (age ≤ 18 years) had shorter OS (p = 0.008) than adult patients (age > 18 years). Of note, H3K27M mutation did not show significant impact on the survival outcome, regardless of histology grade 3 or grade 4 (p = 0.3).
Conclusion Histological high-grade spinal cord astrocytoma has dismal prognosis. Our study demonstrated that H3K27M mutation did not show significant impact on survival outcome of histological high-grade spinal cord astrocytoma.
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Objective Long-level intramedullary spinal cord tumors (LIMSCTs) cause complex treatment issues. However, LIMSCTs have rarely been analyzed separately. The authors reported a large case series of LIMSCTs and analyzed the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes.
Methods The medical data of patients with LIMSCTs at our institution between January 2015 and December 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Demographics, tumor size and location, pathology, extent of resection, and neurological functional status were collected.
Results A total of 43 consecutive cases were included. Twenty-three cases (53.5%) of LIMSCTs were ependymal tumors. All patients with ependymal tumors achieved gross total resection (GTR). In ependymal tumor cases, 3 cases (13%) of ependymal tumors experienced postoperative neurological deterioration, and 66% of them showed an improvement at follow-up; 25.6% were low-grade astrocytic tumors. The rates of GTR, subtotal resection (STR) and partial resection (PR) were 63.6%, 27.3%, and 9.1%, respectively. Twenty-seven percent cases showed postoperative neurological worsening, and 33% of them had an improvement at follow-up; 20.9% were high-grade astrocytic tumors. The excision rates were 44.4% for GTR, 44.4% for STR, and 11% for PR, respectively. Fifty-five percent cases showed postoperative neurological worsening, and none of them had an improvement at follow-up.
Conclusion In this series, all LIMSCTs were gliomas. Aggressive tumor resection did not increase the risk of long-term functional deterioration in ependymal tumors and low-grade astrocytic tumors, but in high-grade astrocytic tumors, patients had a higher risk of neurological deterioration and difficulty in recovery. In ependymal tumors and low-grade astrocytic tumors, patients can achieve long-time survival after performing aggressive tumor resection.
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