Paediatric meningiomas: a multi-centre case series of 27 patients

Abstract

Purpose: This study presents a series of paediatric meningiomas and discusses aetiology, risk factors and outcomes with comparison to current literature.

Methods: This is a retrospective review of surgically treated paediatric meningiomas from three UK centres: the University Hospital of Wales, Alder Hey Children's Hospital and Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Twenty-seven patients aged 16 and under at the time of their first procedure were identified over a 15-year period (1 January 2007 and 1 March 2023). Electronic medical records were used to collect data on age at presentation, sex, location of tumour(s), extent of resection, histology, WHO grade, complications, outcomes and associated conditions, notably neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2).

Results: Twenty-seven patients underwent 39 procedures. There were 13 males and 14 females. The median age was 13 years (range, 8 months to 16 years). Twenty-one (75%) were WHO grade 1, 6 (21%) were grade 2 and 1 (4%) was grade 3. Eight patients (30%) had confirmed NF2. Twelve patients (44%) were sporadic cases. Twenty-five percent and 50% were the recurrence rate in WHO grade 1 and 2 tumours, respectively.

Conclusion: The risk of grade 1 tumour recurrence was higher than within the adult population. This may be due to histological features of paediatric meningiomas differing from the adult population, and therefore, the WHO grading system may not be reflective of recurrence risk. Future molecular profiling and larger studies are required given the rarity of these cases.

Keywords: Case series; Meningioma; Multi-centre.

Fig. 1

Graph to demonstrate meningioma by WHO grade (n = 28)

Fig. 2

Graph to demonstrate meningioma by histological subtype (n = 21)