Limitations of the World Health Organization classification of childhood supratentorial astrocytic tumors
BACKGROUND In the context of many implied but not rigorously stated histologic feature combinations, the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of astrocytic tumors specifies only the presence or absence of endothelial proliferation, necrosis, and mitosis to distinguish astrocytoma, anaplast...
Saved in:
Published in | Cancer Vol. 88; no. 6; pp. 1477 - 1483 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
New York
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
15.03.2000
Wiley-Liss |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | BACKGROUND
In the context of many implied but not rigorously stated histologic feature combinations, the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of astrocytic tumors specifies only the presence or absence of endothelial proliferation, necrosis, and mitosis to distinguish astrocytoma, anaplastic astrocytoma, and glioblastoma multiforme.
METHODS
The authors examined the effects of these and other reliably recognized histologic features on survival in the Childhood Brain Tumor Consortium (CBTC) sample of 340 children with supratentorial astrocytic tumors.
RESULTS
Overall, the WHO criteria distinguished only two prognostically distinct classes of astrocytomas. When the specific combinations of the three features were unambiguously designated, three diagnostic categories resulted. These revised diagnostic categories are consistent with WHO guidelines and have significantly different survival distributions. However, neither the original WHO diagnoses nor the revised categories adequately separated these tumors prognostically, because histologic features other than those specified by WHO were significantly associated with improved or worsened survival.
CONCLUSIONS
Classifications based on small numbers of specified histologic features may not be feasible because they inadequately separate childhood astrocytic tumors into prognostically homogeneous groups. Preferable classification techniques are those that simultaneously account for all reliably recognized histologic features. Cancer 2000;88:1477–83. © 2000 American Cancer Society.
The classification of brain tumors according to the specifications of the World Health Organization fails to separate childhood supratentorial astroglial tumors into prognostically homogeneous groups. Better separation is achieved by designating specific histologic features for the diagnoses of astrocytoma, anaplastic astrocytoma, and glioblastoma multiforme. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | The Childhood Brain Tumor Consortium (Floyd H. Gilles, principal investigator) is composed of the following Carol Kenney and Donna Morelli. Lester A. Adelman, Tufts University Medical School; R. Damon Averill, Jr., University of Michigan Medical School; Richard L. Davis, University of California, San Francisco; Umberto DeGirolami and Thomas W. Smith, University of Massachusetts Medical School; E. Tessa Hedley‐Whyte, James H. Morris, E. P. Richardson, Jr.,* William C. Schoene, and Raymond A. Sobel, Harvard Medical School; and George M. Kleinman, Yale Medical School and University of Connecticut Medical School. Administrative/Data Collection Staff Deceased Barnes and St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis (William F. Blank, Keith H. Fulling); Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hospital, St. Louis (John D. Blair,* Daphne DeMello); Children's Hospital, Boston (Floyd H. Gilles, Ana Sotrel); Children's Hospital of Denver (Edmund N. Orsini, Jr.); Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (Hart Isaacs); Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (Lucy B. Rorke); Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (Yoshie Hashida, Robert A. Price, Eduardo J. Yunis, Barbara W. Zaias); Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto (Larry E. Becker); Los Angeles County–University of Southern California Medical Center (Richard L. Davis); St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia (Guillermo A. de Leon, Dale Huff, Gladys Mestre, Massoud Shamszadeh). Editorial/Data Analysis Committee Floyd H. Gilles, E. Tessa Hedley‐Whyte, Alan Leviton, Eugene Sobel, and C. Jane Tavaré. Institutions Slide Readers |
ISSN: | 0008-543X 1097-0142 |
DOI: | 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0142(20000315)88:6<1477::AID-CNCR28>3.0.CO;2-8 |