Successful treatment of primary intracranial sarcoma with the ICE chemotherapy regimen and focal radiation in children

OBJECT Primary CNS sarcomas are very rare pediatric tumors with no defined standard of care. METHODS This study was a retrospective review of children diagnosed with a primary CNS sarcoma and treated at 2 Canadian tertiary care centers between 1995 and 2012. This report focuses on patients with cerebral hemispheric tumor location due to their specific clinical presentation. RESULTS Fourteen patients with nonmetastatic primary CNS sarcoma were identified; in 9 patients, tumors were located in the cerebral hemisphere and 7 of these patients presented with intratumoral hemorrhage. One infant who died of progressive disease postoperatively before receiving any adjuvant therapy was not included in this study. The final cohort therefore included 8 patients (4 males). Median patient age at diagnosis was 11.8 years (range 5.8–17 years). All tumors were located in the right hemisphere. Duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis was very short with a median of 2 days (range 3–7 days), except for 1 patient. Three (37.5...