ecancermedicalscience

Conference Report

Highlights from the Third International Central Nervous System Germ Cell Tumour symposium: laying the foundations for future consensus

17 Jul 2013
Matthew J Murray, Gail Horan, Stephen Lowis, James C Nicholson

The Third International Central Nervous System (CNS) Germ Cell Tumour (GCT) Symposium brought together over 100 delegates from all over the world to learn about the latest developments in these tumours and discuss future strategies for their management. Some areas of consensus were agreed upon, and controversies were discussed. Among these, the classification of GCTs and the surgical approach to their management were among the greatest areas of difference between different parts of the world. The need for radiotherapy (RT) as a part of standard first-line management for all malignant CNS GCTs was agreed, as well as the need for additional chemotherapy to maximise the cure in nongerminomatous malignant GCTs; the benefit of the addition of chemotherapy in localised germinoma to reduce the RT burden was also accepted as a good practice. The potential of biological parameters to assist the future diagnosis, treatment stratification, and disease monitoring for CNS GCTs was discussed. Such biological parameters may also represent targets for the development of novel therapies. The need for further collaboration between groups engaged in biological studies was agreed. The merits of proton beam RT were debated, and the importance of mitigating the long-term side effects of the treatment was underlined by a session on late effects.

Related Articles

Jessica O Esangbedo, Rachael O Oduyemi, Damilare Aduroja, Yetunde O Tola, Olajumoke Dele-Alonge, Emmanuel O Adesuyi, Michael O Ajiboye, Oluwadamilare Akingbade
Badira Cheriyalinkal Parambil, Nirmalya Roy Moulik, Venkata Rama Mohan Gollamudi, Shyam Srinivasan, Chetan Dhamne, Akanksha Chichra, Gaurav Narula, Mukta Ramadwar, Sumeet Gujral, Tanuja Shet, Epari Sridhar, Poonam Panjwani, Uma Sakhadeo, Siddhartha Laskar, Nehal Khanna, Jifmi Jose Manjali, Sajid Qureshi, Vasundhara Patil, Akshay Baheti, Sneha Shah, Kunal Gala, Pappagudi Subramanian, Prashant Tembhare, Nikhil Patkar, Gaurav Chatterjee, Sweta Rajpal, Dhanlaxmi Shetty, Maya Prasad, Girish Chinnaswamy
Francisca Quintanilla, Álvaro Torres, Monserrat Villar, Catalina Muñoz, José Lizama, Bárbara Mena