MOLECULAR (RE-)CLASSIFICATION OF CNS-PRIMITIVE NEUROECTODERMAL TUMORS

Pediatric Orbital Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors.

PURPOSE To present the clinical, radiological, histopathological, immunohistochemical features and the follow-up of orbital primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs) in pediatric patients along with a review of the literature. METHODS A retrospective analysis of all diagnosed cases of orbital PNET was done. Patients' ophthalmic findings, imaging, immunohistochemistry, metastatic work-up, treat...

Central nervous system primitive neuroectodermal tumors: still a useful classification?

Computed tomography of primitive neuroectodermal tumors.

The primitive neuroectodermal tumor is a neoplasm of young individuals that occurs predominantly in the supratentorial compartment. It appears on computed tomography as a bulky mass, often with calcification with predominantly homogeneous enhancement but on occasion with cystic or necrotic areas. Cerebrospinal fluid seeding was observed in more than half the cases in our series. The patients ha...

Characterization of brain tumor initiating cells isolated from an animal model of CNS primitive neuroectodermal tumors

CNS Primitive Neuroectodermal tumors (CNS-PNETs) are members of the embryonal family of malignant childhood brain tumors, which remain refractory to current therapeutic treatments. Current paradigm of brain tumorigenesis implicates brain tumor-initiating cells (BTIC) in the onset of tumorigenesis and tumor maintenance. However, despite their significance, there is currently no comprehensive cha...

Supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors in young children.

TO THE EDITOR: In the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Timmermann et al suggest that radiotherapy plays a major role in the treatment of young children with supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors (stPNET) and conclude that a delay in irradiation may compromise survival. Although stPNET are undoubtedly aggressive brain tumors and results of treatments are still disappoin...