Premium
Intracranial choriocarcinoma causing precocious puberty and cured with combined modality therapy
Author(s) -
MASSE R. J.,
SHAW P. J.,
BURGESS M.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1993.tb03022.x
Subject(s) - medicine , radiation therapy , precocious puberty , chemotherapy , choriocarcinoma , biopsy , germ cell tumors , surgery , radiology , hormone
Precocious puberty can be caused by hormonally active tumours, which may arise intracranially. Treatment of these intracranial lesions traditionally involves biopsy and radiotherapy. Chemotherapy has been used recently, although radiotherapy has been given irrespective of the response to chemotherapy. We report a case of precocious puberty in an 8 year old boy due to a malignant intracranial germ cell tumour. Although one could speculate that he was cured by such combined modality therapy, the patient was left with several long‐term problems. Radiotherapy was a major cause of these complications. Radiotherapy is now thought unnecessary for most extracranial germ cell tumours, as chemotherapy alone is curative in most patients. Therefore it seems appropriate to consider the elimination of radiotherapy for patients with intracranial disease.