Ependymomas of the Filum Terminale: The Role of Surgery and Radiotherapy

Overview

Journal Surg Neurol Int

Specialty Neurology

Date 2012 Sep 1

PMID 22937477

Citations 4

Authors

Lars de Jong

Frank Van Calenbergh

Johan Menten

Johannes van Loon

Steven de Vleeschouwer

Christiaan Plets

Mehrnaz Didgar

Raf Sciot

Jan Goffin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Ependymomas of the filum terminale (EFT) form a specific and relatively uncommon subtype of spinal cord ependymomas. Most series in the literature are small, spanning a large time period. Up to date no consensus has been reached about the optimal treatment of these lesions. Some authors promote postoperative radiotherapy for all cases, others advocate postoperative radiotherapy only when a subtotal resection is performed or when metastasis are apparent.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 22 patients with an EFT (mean age at diagnosis of 35.6 years).

Results: In all patients (9/22) with lesions smaller than 4.5 cm no metastases were present and a complete resection could be obtained. No adjuvant radiotherapy was performed and at latest follow they had an excellent outcome. In our series, these initial tumor characteristics were more important regarding prognosis than either histology or treatment-related factors. For the larger tumors, total resection was obtained less frequently, more dissemination was diagnosed and a worse outcome was scored. Radiotherapy if indicated did lead to an acceptable disease control.

Conclusion: In every case of EFT, an individual treatment protocol has to be outlined, but if an EFT is relatively small and can be resected completely, we would advocate to withhold radiotherapy.

Citing Articles

Adjunctive treatment of myxopapillary ependymoma.

Jahanbakhshi A, Najafi M, Jafari F, Moshtaghian M, Gomar M, Anbarlouei M Oncol Rev. 2021; 15(1):518.

PMID: 33824699 PMC: 8018208. DOI: 10.4081/oncol.2021.518.

Management and Outcome Analysis of Conus and Filum ependymoma: A Tertiary Center Study.

Sudhan M, Satyarthee G, Joseph L, Sharma M, Kakkar A, Sharma B Asian J Neurosurg. 2019; 14(3):821-827.

PMID: 31497108 PMC: 6703025. DOI: 10.4103/ajns.AJNS_326_16.

Intradural spinal tumors in adults-update on management and outcome.

Ottenhausen M, Ntoulias G, Bodhinayake I, Ruppert F, Schreiber S, Forschler A Neurosurg Rev. 2018; 42(2):371-388.

PMID: 29455369 DOI: 10.1007/s10143-018-0957-x.

Surgery for primary filum terminale ependymomas: outcome and prognostic factors.

Xie T, Chen X, Qian J, Lu Y, Jiang Y, Zhang L CNS Neurosci Ther. 2013; 20(2):131-9.

PMID: 24279505 PMC: 6493068. DOI: 10.1111/cns.12174.

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