The Surgical Treatment Of Pineal Region Tumors

OBJECTIVE: To instruct the diagnosis and therapy of pineal region tumors (PRT) by the way of comprehending domestic epidemiologic data, clinical finding, pathological species, and treatment of PRT of meaningful treatment strategies of PRT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: references for this manuscript were obtained by searching the database VIP using the phrase "pineal region tumor" , and dating from 1998 to 2006. 80 articles were identified and reviewed. The results were combined with our personal experience, which includes 1229 cases of PRT. RESULTS: In this paper we present results of 552 patients with histologically verified pineal region tumors. There are four groups of tumors: the germ cell tumors 44. 9%; the pineal parenchymal tumors 11.8%; the glial tumors 17.8%; and miscellaneous 22. 5%. There were 580 surgical procedures for tumor removal performed. Radiation therapy was administered in 649 patients. The occipital transtentorial and infratentorial supracerebellar approaches were the most commonly used on our series—58. 8% and 34. 2%, respectively. A total tumor removal was achieved in 60. 9% operations, subtotal in 19. 3% and partial in 19. 8%. CONCLUTIONS: The majority of PRT is malignant tumors. The most powerful diagnostic tools are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT).There is little relationship between the image and pathological species is benign pineal region tumors should be cured with surgery alone. Malignant tumors should be treated with aggressive resection followed with irradiation and chemotherapy. Pure germinomas, which are exquisitely radiosensitive, can be cured byconventional radiation therapy alone.