The clinical features and surgical outcomes of intracranial tanycytic ependymomas: a single-institutional experience

Abstract

Tanycytic ependymoma is a rare subtybe of ependymoma with a predilection for the spinal cord and intracranial tanycytic ependymoma is thus extremely rare. Most studies on intracranial tanycytic ependymomas included only one or two cases. Here we report nine patients with pathologically confirmed intracranial tanycytic ependymomas. The clinical characteristics, including radiological and histological examination, operative records, and prognoses were reviewed. The case series included six male and three female patients with an average age of 19.3 years. Tumors were located in the lateral ventricle (3/9), the fourth ventricle (2/9), and the supratentorial extraventricle (4/9). Gross total resection (GTR) of the tumor was achieves in seven cases, and subtotal resection (STR) was achieved in the other two cases. One patient died 21 months after discharge. The left eight patients showed improved symptoms after surgery, and no tumor recurrence was found in these cases during the follow-up. It seems that intracranial tanycytic ependymoma has the best long-term prognosis compared to the other two subtypes of ependymoma. According to our experience, we recommend surgery including GTR and STR followed by radiotherapy for patients with intracranial tanycytic ependymomas.

Adult WHO grade II ependymomas: is Ki67 a sex-specific proliferation marker?

“…GFAP, EMA and Ki-67 have been shown in some studies to have associations with certain traditional groups of ependymomas. GFAP has been associated with tancytic [ 14 ] and giant cell [ 15 ] ependymomas, EMA with anaplastic [ 16 ] and giant cell [ 15 ] ependymoma and a Ki-67 index <10% with increased progression free survival of supratentorial ependymomas [ 17 ]. Xi et al ’s single-centre retrospective analysis of 69 spinal and cranial ependymal tumours found that whilst location, necrosis, mitosis and Ki67 index were related to prognosis, only Ki67 index was found to be an independent prognostic factor for survival [ 6 ].…”