ESPEYB18 1. Pituitary and Neuroendocrinology Clinical/Translational (4 abstracts)
Pituitary. 2020 Aug;23(4):381-388. doi: 10.1007/s11102-020-01042-2. PMID: 32388804.
Bhimani and colleagues analysed the National Cancer Institutes register data of pediatric and adult patients to describe patient demographics and management of intracranial germinomas, reporting the largest case series (n=92) to date.
In their cohort, pediatric patients were more likely to undergo chemotherapy as part of treatment, while adults were more likely to undergo surgical resection. Increased overall survival was associated with: younger age, radiation as a treatment component, and chemotherapy, but not surgery. In line with previous reports, young adult males predominated this pituitary germinoma population.
Intracranial germinomas are very rare tumors found in the suprasellar and pineal regions. These findings underline the need for clinicians to be particularly careful to exclude pituitary germinoma in this age group when imaging is inconclusive. This report is of high clinical importance, as the diagnosis of intracranial germinoma is frequently delayed due to insidious symptoms and inconclusive MRI findings.