Publications by authors named "R D Kortmann"
Background: Ependymomas of the spinal cord are rare among children and adolescents, and the individual risk of disease progression is difficult to predict. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic impact of molecular typing on pediatric spinal cord ependymomas.
Methods: Eighty-three patients with spinal ependymomas ≤22 years registered in the HIT-MED database (German brain tumor registry for children, adolescents, and adults with medulloblastoma, ependymoma, pineoblastoma, and CNS-primitive neuroectodermal tumors) between 1992 and 2022 were included.
Background: Ependymoma (EPN) is not a uniform disease but represents different disease types with biological and clinical heterogeneity. However, the pattern of when and where different types of EPN relapse is not yet comprehensively described.
Methods: We assembled 269 relapsed intracranial EPN from pediatric (n = 233) and adult (n = 36) patients from European and Northern American cohorts and correlated DNA methylation patterns and copy-number alterations with clinical information.
Background: Tucatinib (TUC), a HER2-directed tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is the first targeted drug demonstrating intracranial efficacy and significantly prolonged survival in metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer (BC) patients with brain metastases. Current treatments for brain metastases often include radiotherapy, but little is known about the effects of combination treatment with TUC. Therefore, we examined the combined effects of irradiation and TUC in human HER2-overexpressing BC, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines.
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- - The SIOP-CNS-GCT-II European trial studied the effects of age on acute toxicity from chemotherapy in patients with central nervous system germ cell tumors, using various chemotherapy regimens based on tumor type.
- - Analysis included 296 patients across three age groups: children (≤11 years), adolescents (12-17 years), and adults (≥18 years), revealing that adults experienced lower rates of severe adverse events compared to adolescents despite similar chemotherapy dosages.
- - The study concluded that adults can safely tolerate intensive chemotherapy protocols with less toxicity than adolescents, indicating a need for further investigation into how age influences chemotherapy-related toxicity.
Background: Radiotherapy (RT) involving craniospinal irradiation (CSI) is important in the initial treatment of medulloblastoma. At recurrence, the re-irradiation options are limited and associated with severe side-effects.
Methods: For pre-irradiated patients, patients with re-irradiation (RT2) were matched by sex, histology, time to recurrence, disease status and treatment at recurrence to patients without RT2.