Postoperative radiotherapy in the management of spinal cord ependymoma

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Abstract
✓ Fifty-eight patients with histologically verified spinal cord ependymomas were treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Atkinson Morley's Hospital between 1950 and 1987. The median age in this series was 40 years (range 1 to 79 years) and the male:female ratio was 1.8:1. Ten patients had tumors in the cervical cord and 10 in the thoracic cord; 14 tumors involved the conus medullaris and 24 the cauda equina. Forty ependymomas were grade 1 and 13 were grades II to IV (in five patients there was insufficient material for grading). Eleven patients underwent biopsy only, 33 had partial or subtotal resection, and 14 had complete resection. Forty-three patients received postoperative radiotherapy. The median follow-up period was 70 months (range 3 to 408 months). Cause-specific survival rates were 74% and 68% at 5 and 10 years, respectively. On univariate analysis, age, histological grade, postoperative neurological function, and era of treatment were significant prognostic factors for survival. The histologi...

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