A decade of treating brain stem gliomas: Single institutional experience

Brainstem is a rare yet challenging site for primary brain tumors. We present the patient characteristics, treatment-related details, and survival outcomes of patients with brain stem gliomas treated over a decade, from August 2010 to July 2022, at a tertiary care center in northern India.

Twenty-seven patients of brainstem gliomas were treated in our hospital from August 2010 to July 2022. All of these patients were treated with radiation therapy based on a radiological diagnosis only. Data were collected and analyzed from patient registration, treatment, and follow-up records.

Of the 27 patients, 18 were male and 9 were female. Fourteen patients (51.85%) were in the pediatric age group (<12 years). The most common symptom at onset was hemiparesis, seen in 62.96%. The majority of the patients (24; 88.88%) had pontine involvement at the time of treatment. Overall survival at a minimum 2-year follow-up post-treatment was 22.22% in the entire cohort. Age, sex, or size of tumor at presentation was not seen to have any significant impact on survival of patients.

With the advancement in surgical techniques and molecular analysis of brain tumors, there is likely to be a change in the management of brainstem gliomas; however, radiation therapy has been used for the management of these tumors for decades now. Radiation therapy continues to show rapid and significant radiological and clinical improvement in the majority of such patients, and it would continue to play an important part in multi-modality management.