Pineoblastoma is a rare malignant tumor of the central nervous system (CNS), which arises from the parenchyma of the pineal gland. It is characterized by aggressive clinical behavior and frequent metastases along the craniospinal axis. Extraneural metastases may occur due to surgical seeding of tumor cells beyond the dura and/or hematogenous spread, ventriculoperitoneal shunting, or through Bat...

Choroid plexus papilloma (CPP) is a low-grade neoplasm of the choroid plexus that typically occurs in childhood and comprises under 1% of adult brain tumors. In this article, we report our experience delivering craniospinal irradiation (CSI) to a highly unusual case of disseminated CPP in an adult patient 8 years after an initial near total resection. The patient remains free of disease progres...

With robust optimization for spot scanning proton therapy now commercially available, the ability exists to account for setup, range, and interfield uncertainties during optimization. Robust optimization is particularly beneficial for craniospinal irradiation (CSI) where the large target volume lends itself to larger setup uncertainties and the need for robust match lines can all be handled wit...

Helical Tomotherapy (HT) is a highly conformal image-guided radiation technique, introduced into clinical routine in 2006 at the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico Aviano (Italy). With this new technology, intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is delivered using a helicoidal method. Here we present our dosimetric experiences using HT in 100 children, adolescents and young adults treated from Ma...

Increased neurotoxicity and poor long-term neurocognitive outcome of preschool children treated for brain tumors have led to innovative therapeutic strategies in order to delay or avoid the use of craniospinal radiation and to improve survival. Because these protocols are relatively new, few data exist regarding cognitive outcome. We conducted a twin case-control study to investigate neurocogni...

BACKGROUND Central neurocytoma is an uncommon benign tumor of the central nervous system. A section of these tumors have unusual aggressiveness and are termed as "atypical central neurocytomas," the definition of which is debated. Many studies in the available literature define them as tumors with elevated MIB-1 labeling index (MIB-1 LI) >2%, while some associate them with higher values of MIB-...

Intracranial hypertension is a severe therapeutic problem, as there is insufficient knowledge about the physiology of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure. In this paper a new CSF pressure regulation hypothesis is proposed. According to this hypothesis, the CSF pressure depends on the laws of fluid mechanics and on the anatomical characteristics inside the cranial and spinal space, and not, as is...