outcomes of phosphorus-32 intracavitary irradiation for craniopharyngiomas: a review of the literature

purpose: to review on outcomes of phosphorus-32 ( 32 p) intracavitary irradiation for craniopharyngiomas. methods: a literature review of all full publications in english biomedical journals (1981-2014) was performed. the search strategy included a combination of key words “phosphorus-32”, “craniopharyngioma”, “intracystic treatment”, “brain”, “cyst”, “tumor”, “brachytherapy”, “intracavitary irradiation”, “isotope” in the title and abstract of the manuscripts using the pubmed. the major findings were summarized, with a focus on outcome as visual acuity, complications, cyst volume, and irradiation dose delivered to the cyst wall in gy. finally, the future of 32 p intracavitary irradiation for craniopharyngiomas was explored. results: a total of 25 citations were identified and screened. in all, 19 citations were eligible for inclusion. the synthesis of the data showed several benefits and adverse events for 32 p intracavitary. overall benefits included improvements in visual, endocrinological, and neurological outcomes, while adverse effects included complications such as iii palsy and diabetes insipidus . conclusion: in general 32 p intracavitary irradiation was found to be a reasonable option in treatment of highly selected patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent cystic craniopharyngioma. this approach can be expected to overcome some limitations introduced by other approaches with a relatively low complication rates.