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Incidental diagnosis of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma in children
Author(s) -
Wright Karen D.,
Sabin Noah D.,
Cheuk Daniel,
McNallKnapp RenéY.,
Shurtleff Sheila A.,
Gajjar Amar,
Broniscer Alberto
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.25408
Subject(s) - medicine , glioma , blood cancer , radiation therapy , cancer , counterintuitive , radiology , cancer research , philosophy , epistemology
Children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) have a short onset, rapidly progressive neurologic decline before diagnosis. Therefore, incidental diagnosis of such an aggressive cancer is counterintuitive, yet our experience shows DIPG may occur as part of a spectrum of incidentally diagnosed pediatric brain cancers. Although children with incidentally diagnosed DIPG may experience a longer survival, it remains a potentially deadly cancer despite treatment with radiotherapy. Histologic confirmation is warranted when feasible in such patients to confirm diagnosis. Moreover, recent advances in genome‐wide analyses may suggest incidentally diagnosed DIPGs are biologically distinct from the majority of these cancers. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2015;62:1081–1083. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.