A new protocol that may improve the odds by nearly twofold of children surviving choroid plexus tumors, a rare pediatric brain tumor, was announced by a team of international researchers at the annual meeting of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) held October 5-9 in São Paulo, Brazil.
Choroid plexus carcinomas are malignant brain tumors that originate in the choroid plexus epithelium, the gland that produces cerebrospinal fluid. These tumors may block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid causing pressure to build in the brain, with the potential to enlarge the skull. Choroid plexus carcinomas affect approximately 1,500 children worldwide each year, and occur more frequently in infants.
The new protocol, which consists of chemotherapy treatment with carboplatinum, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide in combination with radiation therapy, has been developed as a result of 10 years of research by more than 100 institutions in 20 countries participating in the SIOP 2000 study, according to principal investigator Dr. Johannes Wolff, head of the pediatric neuro-oncology section at the Children's Cancer Center of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, in Houston.
Wolff reported that pediatric patients treated with the protocol as standard treatment had projected overall survival rates of 93% at one year, 82% at five years, and 78% at eight years.
Due to the rarity of the disease, no standard treatment protocol has previously existed. In addition to developing the protocol Wolff described, the research team also developed a statistical module for institutions to use that will ensure quality and efficient data generated by the study.
The SIOP 2000 study, funded by the German Children's Cancer Foundation, found that patients receiving the intense chemotherapy protocol had similar outcomes as those with complete resection, reducing the need for surgical treatment. This contradicted historical research, which originally showed the significant advantage of complete surgical resection, Wolff reported.
The researchers recommended that a new study be initiated to investigate a four-armed chemotherapy protocol to determine if it could further extend survival rates.
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