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Management strategies for pediatric patients with tectal gliomas: a systematic review

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A Correction to this article was published on 30 November 2021

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Abstract

Pediatric tectal gliomas generally have a benign clinical course with the majority of these observed radiologically. However, patients often need treatment for obstructive hydrocephalus and occasionally require cytotoxic therapy. Given the lack of level I data, there is a need to further characterize management strategies for these rare tumors. We have therefore performed the first systematic review comparing various management strategies. The literature was systematically searched from January 1, 2000, to July 30, 2020, to identify studies reporting treatment strategies for pediatric tectal gliomas. The systematic review included 355 patients from 14 studies. Abnormal ocular findings—including gaze palsies, papilledema, diplopia, and visual field changes—were a common presentation with between 13.6 and 88.9% of patients experiencing such findings. CSF diversion was the most performed procedure, occurring in 317 patients (89.3%). In individual studies, use of CSF diversion ranged from 73.1 to 100.0%. For management options, 232 patients were radiologically monitored (65.4%), 69 received resection (19.4%), 30 received radiotherapy (8.4%), and 19 received chemotherapy (5.4%). When examining frequencies within individual studies, chemotherapy ranged from 2.5 to 29.6% and radiotherapy ranged from 2.5 to 28.6%. Resection was the most variable treatment option between individual studies, ranging from 2.3 to 100.0%. Most tectal gliomas in the pediatric population can be observed through radiographic surveillance and CSF diversion. Other forms of management (i.e., chemotherapy and radiotherapy) are warranted for more aggressive tumors demonstrating radiological progression. Surgical resection should be reserved for large tumors and/or those that are refractory to other treatment modalities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, 200 1st St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Megan M. J. Bauman, Archis R. Bhandarkar, Clark R. Zheng, Cecile Riviere-cazaux, Ryan M. Naylor & David J. Daniels

  2. Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA

    Megan M. J. Bauman, Archis R. Bhandarkar, Clark R. Zheng & Cecile Riviere-cazaux

  3. Mayo Clinic Libraries, Rochester, MN, USA

    Cynthia J. Beeler

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Contributions

M.M.J.B. and A.R.B conceived the research topic. C.J.B. collected the data. M.M.J.B., A.R.B., C.R.Z., and C.R. performed the systematic review. M.M.J.B. and A.R.B. interpreted the data, performed the analysis, and wrote the manuscript. R.M.N. and D.J.D. aided in interpreting the results and critically revising the manuscript.

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Correspondence to David J. Daniels.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The article Management strategies for pediatric patients with tectal gliomas: a systematic review, written by Megan M. J. Bauman, Archis R. Bhandarkar, Clark R. Zheng, Cecile Riviere‑cazaux, Cynthia J. Beeler, Ryan M. Naylor, and David J. Daniels, was originally published online on the publisher’s internet portal on October 5, 2021 with Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license 4.0. With the author’s/authors' decision to cancel Open Access the copyright of the article changed on October 11, 2021 to © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021 with all rights reserved.

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Bauman, M.M.J., Bhandarkar, A.R., Zheng, C.R. et al. Management strategies for pediatric patients with tectal gliomas: a systematic review. Neurosurg Rev 45, 1031–1039 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10143-021-01653-8

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