Clinico-morphological pattern of intracranial tumors in children.

OBJECTIVE The objective of present study was to observe the histopathological pattern of intracranial tumors in children (< 15 yrs) and to correlate the site of lesion along with the histological diagnosis. SETTING The study included consecutive cases of intracranial tumors diagnosed in children (< 15 yrs.) in the section of histopathology at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi during the period of three years. METHODS The initial histological evaluation of these lesions was performed on H and E stained section of paraffin embedded tissue. Special stains and immunohistochemical analysis was done whenever indicated. RESULTS During the study period, fifty-four cases of intracranial tumors were diagnosed in children. The age ranged from 1-1/2 years to 4 years with male to female ratio of 1.1:1. Astrocytoma comprised 39% of all intracranial tumors of childhood. Medulloblastoma (18.6%) ranked the second most prevalent brain tumor followed by empendymoma (13%), oligodendroglioma 7.5% while non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, primitive neuroblastoma 3.7% and ganglioglioma 3.7% while non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, primitive neuroectodermal tumors, mixed germ cell tumor, pineoblastoma, choroid plexus carcinoma and malignant meningioma constituted 1.8% each. CONCLUSION Astrocytoma was the most common pediatric brain tumor. Medulloblastoma was more common in males while pilocytic astrocytoma was more frequent in females. Posterior cranial fossa was the most common site (43.5%) of pediatric brain tumors. Low grade astrocytoma was more prevalent in posterior cranial fossa as compared to high grade astrocytoma which was more frequent in the supratentorial region.