Preliminary Results of Management for Primary CNS Lymphoma

Ahn,  Seung Do; Chang,  Hye Sook; Choi,  Eun Kyong

J Korean Soc Ther Radiol > Volume 11(1); 1993 > Article

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Society for Therapeutic Radiology 1993;11(1): 79-82.

Preliminary Results of Management for Primary CNS Lymphoma

Seung Do Ahn, Hye Sook Chang, Eun Kyong Choi

Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Asan Medical Center, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Seoul, Korea.

ABSTRACT

From October 1989 to March 1992, ten patients diagnosed as primary central nervous system(CNS) lymphoma were treated with radiation therapy at Asan Medical Center. To obtain pathologic diagnosis, five patients had stereotactic biopsy and the others underwent craniotomy & tumor removal. According to the classification by International Working Formulation, seven of 10 patients showed diffuse large cell types and the remaining 3 had diffuse mixed cell types. Computed tomographic scans of the brain disclosed solitary (6 cases) or multiple (4 cases) intracranial lesions. All patients received 4000cGy/20 fx to the whole brain followed by an additional 2000cGy/10 fx boost to the primary lesion. Six patients with initial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) involvement were treated with whole brain irradiation and intrathecal Methotrexate(IT-MTX) chemotherapy. One of them received an additional spinal irradiation after 3 cycles of IT-MTX chemotherapy because of MTX induced arachnoiditis. One patient received 3 cycles of systemic chemotherapy prior to rodiation therapy and one received 5 cycles of salvage chemotherapy for recurrence. With a median follow up time of 8 months, all patients were followed from 7 to 26 months. Radiologically seven patients showed complete remission and the remaining three showed partial remission at one month after radiotherapy. The 1 and 2 year survival rate was 86% and 69% respectively. Until now, two patients expired at 7 and 14 months. These patients developed extensive CSF seeding followed by local failure. Considering initial good response to radiation therapy and low incidence of extraneural dissemination in primary CNS lymphoma, we propose to increase total tumor dose to the primary lesion by hyperfractionated radiotherapy or stereotactic radiosurgery. For the patients with CSF involvement at diagnosis, we propose craniospinal irradiation with IT MTX chemotherapy.