Role of radiation therapy in the management of craniopharyngiomas in children.

A retrospective study of 32 children treated for craniopharyngioma between 1956 and 1974 was conducted. Twenty-eight patients survived at least 5 years. The length and quality of survival were determined for four treatment subgroups: estimated total resection (8 patients), subtotal resection (4 patients), subtotal resection plus radiotherapy (12 patients), and biopsy and/or cyst aspiration plus radiotherapy (8 patients). The recurrence and survival rates as well as the postoperative morbidity rate for the patients with estimated total resection are comparable to the data from the other modern series. The group receiving radiation therapy after known subtotal resection has done as well as the group with estimated total removal. The excellent response of patients harboring large tumors of a predominantly mixed type to biopsy and/or cyst aspiration followed by radiation therapy provides further evidence of the efficacy and low morbidity of this form of management in selected cases.