J Korean Soc Endocrinol.  1994 Sep;10(3):262-272.

Complication and Prognosis of Craniopharyngioma According to the Age of Onset

• Lee EJ
• Nam MS
• Song YD
• Lim SK
• Lee HC
• Huh KB
• Kim KR
• Song KH
• Cha BS
• Lee JH

Abstract

Craniopharyngioma is the most common tumor involving the hypothalamo-pituitary area in childhood and adolescence. Recently, we carried out collective review of 70 patients with craniopharyngioma treated from January 1980 to December 1994 in order to inverstigate the endocrine outcome and survival according to the age of onset.The following results were obtained:1) The male to female ratio was 1:1. Age at diagnosis ranged from 2 to 64 years(mean age: 23) with the greatest frequency in the 2nd decade of life(28.6%). Of the 70 cases, the first group, 27 cases were under the age of 15, and the other group, 43 cases were over 15 year-old.2) The most common symptom at diagnosis in both groups was headache. In the adult group, symptoms related to hypogonadism(amenorrhea, decreased libido, galactorrhea etc.) were not uncommon. The lag of time between onset of symptom and hospital visit ranged from 3 days to 156 months(mean: 20 months).3) The main site of tumor was suprasellar region in both groups. The most common CT finding in both groups was calcification in sella turcica.4) In pre-operative combined pituitary function test, the most common, abnormal responses were shown in growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone in both groups. In addition, prolactin frequently showed abnormal response in the adult group.In post-operative combined pituitary function test, more hormones tended to reveal abnormal response in the group treated with surgery plus radiation therapy.5) The operation by subtotal removal followed by radiation therapy was the most commonly used method in treatment of both groups. After treatment, panhypopituitarism was occurred more frequently in the group treated with RT after surgery than those treated with surgery alone, but the difference was not statistically significant(p=0.136 in childhood, 0.436 in adults). Except the cases with panhypopituitarism, the most commonly encountered endocrine abnormalities were growth retardation in the children group, and hypogonadism in adult. The recurrence was clinically observed in 11 cases. The recurrence rate were 11.1% in children, and 18.6% in adult respectively. The mean time from the initial treatment to recurrence was 23 months. There was no significant difference in recurrence rate between the group treated with RT after subtotal removal and the group treated with total removal(p=0.475).The overall five-year survival rate after treatment was 82.8%. According to the treatment modalities, the patients undergone RT after subtotal removal survived much longer than those treated with other modalities such as subtotal removal only or total removal, but the differences in survival were not statistically significant(Log rank test, p=0.0539).

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Adult
Age of Onset*
Child
Craniopharyngioma*
Diagnosis
Female
Galactorrhea
Growth Hormone
Headache
Humans
Hypogonadism
Libido
Male
Methods
Pituitary Function Tests
Pregnancy
Prognosis*
Prolactin
Recurrence
Survival Rate
Thyrotropin
Growth Hormone
Prolactin
Thyrotropin