Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026
Proton Therapy Delivery and Its Clinical Application in Select Solid Tumor Malignancies
Published on: February 6, 2019
Radiotherapy-induced secondary cranial neoplasms in children
Mehmet Kantar1, Nazan Cetingül, Savaş Kansoy
1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Oncology, Ege University School of Medicine, 35100, Izmir, Turkey. mkantar@med.ege.edu.tr
Background:
Secondary malignant neoplasms (SMN) in CNS tumor survivors has become problem of increasing concern over the last 20 years. These tumors usually occur in a different site from the primary brain tumor several years after treatment.
Case Report:
We report secondary cranial malignant neoplasms in three patients who were treated with irradiation and chemotherapy for their primary brain tumors. The first case is a male survivor of an orbital rhabdomyosarcoma who developed a meningioma 8 years later. The other two cases are female survivors of ependymomas who were irradiated at the age of 3 and developed secondary gliomas 8 and 17 years after therapy respectively.
Conclusion:
Patients carry a risk of developing SMNs many years later since irradiation is still an important part of the treatment. An SMN may have a benign course, as in meningioma, or be a dilemma for the patient, as in glioblastoma.
