Long-term follow-up of patients with optic glioma.

Patients with optic glioma were classified into two types: infant type and childhood. The infant type was usually immature astrocytomas that had an aggressive course and had a poor prognosis. On the other hand, the childhood type was usually mature astrocytomas with a rather benign, self-limiting course, even when the tumor had been left untreated. To make a long-term assessment, 11 patients with optic glioma were studied and 6 long-term survivors with chiasmal tumor invasion, in whom total removal of the tumor had not been feasible, were followed up for 8-12 years. Most of them had a stable course both clinically and radiologically.