Management and survival in children and adolescents with CNS tumor at the Nora Astorga National Radiotherapy Center, 2006-2015

Abstract

From January 2006 to December 2015, at the National Radiation Therapy Center Nora Astorga (NRCNA), an exhaustive analysis of Radiation Therapy with Cobalt 60 of pediatric patients with Tumors of the Central Nervous System was carried out.
The method of study used was the descriptive one, of cross section. The database of the CNRNA Cancer Registry (REGCAN) and the unit's files were taken as a reference source, as clinical files; for the statistical software SPSS, v. 20. Among the main results, a higher incidence of cases was observed in the female sex (54% vs 46%), 40% of the patients were in the age range of 5-9 years old and originated in Managua 19 (26% ). The main groups of tumors of the CNS that predominated were astrocytic tumors 27 cases, embryonic tumors and brain stem with 19 cases. 67% (48) of the tumors were Infratentorial and 85% of high grade. The main therapeutic approaches were surgery + Radiotherapy 67% and radiotherapy only 25%. In the radiotherapeutic management, the dose of 54 Gy with 42% prevailed, type of 2D planning with 90%, fractionation type 2 Gy with 89%, duration between admission to the NRCNA and start of treatment was less than 4 weeks with 90% (65 cases) and the duration of treatment 6 weeks 97% (70 cases). The rate of associated complications was 35%. The overall lethality was 71%, but it was higher in girls, older, infratentorial localization,
high grade and radiotherapy dose but the differences were not statistically significant.

Keywords: cobalt 60, tumors of the CNS, radiotherapy, survival.