Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 3/3/2010

Question
Hi, my step-daughter was just diagnosed with high-grade Astroblastoma III. What should i expect on life expectancy or what are her chances of beating this? She is 10 years old. The surgeon did a total gross resection and her tumor was 1.5 inches X 1.5 inches in the back right part of her brain. They said we caught it very early. Any information would be greatly appreciated! I know this is an extremely rare tumor but all the information written about it is in "doctor terms". Please tell me what to expect in normal understandable terms! thank you

Answer
I answered a question about this rare tumor here on AllExperts on May 25 2006. If you do a Google search on astroblastoma you will find it (the patient, 13 years old, was treated at a place called Riley's Hospital). What I wrote there still stands. However you mention that her tumor is a high grade (anaplastic) grade III (3) tumor. Such a tumor has unfortunately a far more dubious prognosis. Radiation therapy will certainly be necessary and probably also chemotherapy. Even so the outcome remains most uncertain unfortunately. The prognosis of malignant brain tumors is largely governed by their grade not so much by how "early they were caught". I'm sorry I can not give you a better answer! Has radiation therapy been discussed?




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