Peer-reviewed article

LINC-09. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME IN CHILDREN WITH LOW-GRADE GLIOMAS IN WESTERN MEXICO: EXPERIENCE AT HOSPITAL CIVIL DE GUADALAJARA

del Campo R, Casillas-Toral E, Orozco-Alvarado A, Sanchez-Zubieta F, Arredondo-Navarro L et al. · 1 Dec 2020

Summary

Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001

This is a medical study about the treatment outcomes of low-grade brain gliomas (tumors) in children treated at a hospital in Mexico between 2007 and 2019. The study reviewed 105 children's medical records and found that survival rates were lower than in high-income countries, with 83% surviving 5 years and 73% surviving 10 years. The main limitation was that only 40% of children had complete surgical removal of their tumors.

Key points

105 children with low-grade gliomas were studied, with median age at diagnosis of 7.2 years
68% of tumors were WHO Grade I (less aggressive)
Most children (49.5%) had surgery followed by observation only; 37.2% had surgery combined with chemotherapy or radiotherapy
Only 40% achieved gross total tumor resection; 44% had partial resection
5-year overall survival was 83% and 10-year survival was 73%, lower than high-income countries

Limitations

This is a retrospective case series describing outcomes rather than evaluating an intervention, and the study does not establish what factors drive the differences in survival outcomes compared to high-income settings. The document does not provide information about the quality of life or developmental outcomes for surviving children.

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND Brain tumors are the most common solid tumors in childhood, 35% of them being low-grade gliomas (LGGs). Few data is available regard LGGs in low-and-middle-income countries. This study evaluates LGGs in a tertiary center in Mexico. DESIGN: A retrospective review of clinical files of 105 children diagnosed with LGG other than optic nerve glioma from 2007 to 2019 was done. RESULTS Median age at diagnosis was 7.2 years (from 5 months to 18 years). Male to female ratio was 0.75:1. WHO Grade I represented 68% of the cases. Anatomic sites were: posterior fossa (41%), supratentorial (43.5 %), spinal (8.5%), subependymal (6 %) and pineal (1%). Ten percent of patients had a diagnosed phacomatosis. Treatment was observation without surgery in 3.8%, surgery followed by observation in 49.5%, only chemotherapy in 2.8%, only radiotherapy in 6.7%, and surgery combined with chemotherapy or radiotherapy in 37.2% of cases. Among patients who had surgical intervention, 40% achieved gross total resection, 44% subtotal resection and 16% only biopsy. One or more recurrences were found in 20 % of patients. The 5 and 10-year overall survival (OS) was 83% and 73% respectively. The 5 and 10-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 66 % and 44 % respectively. CONCLUSIONS In this series the OS were lower compared with countries with high income, reflecting the need to improve surgery, since only 40% achieved complete resection that is a determining factor for the prognosis. We observed a decrease in OS until 10-year follow and the PFS was even lower due to recurrence/progression.