Pediatric low grade focal brainstem glioma: outcomes of different treatment strategies and prognostic factors

This study explores the prognostic factors and outcomes of different treatment modalities in focal brain stem glioma (FBSG). Pediatric FBSG patients diagnosed during 2010–2017 were retrospectively reviewed for clinical and therapeutic data. A total of 71 cases were identified and the median age was 6.4 years. The 5-year overall- and progression-free survival were 74.5 and 70.6%, respectively. Radiotherapy was the main line of treatment (66.2%) and there were no survival differences between radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surveillance groups. Two independent poor prognostic factors were identified on multivariate analysis: age