Background: Embryonal tumors with multilayered rosettes (ETMR) is an extremely rare and highly aggressive tumor. It includes three distinct entities i.e, embryonal tumor with abundant neuropil and true rosettes (ETANTR), ependymoblastoma (EBL) and medulloepithelioma (MEPL). Here, we present our institutional experience of seven ETMR cases treated over a period of five years.
Materials and methods: Patients' records from 2015 to 2019 were reviewed manually and electronically to retrieve the data. Clinicopathological and outcome details of ETMR cases were entered in a predesigned proforma.
Results: A total of seven cases of ETMR were registered from 2015 to 2019 with a median age at presentation of four years (range 3-7 years). All patients underwent surgery. However, only three patients completed the planned adjuvant treatment, comprising of focal radiotherapy (RT) alone, craniospinal irradiation (CSI) alone and CSI followed by six cycles of chemotherapy in one patient each respectively. Two patients commenced CSI but deteriorated during RT and thereafter needed best supportive care. Two patients could not be started on any adjuvant treatment. Unfortunately, six patients succumbed to their disease within one year of their diagnosis. Only one patient who received both CSI and adjuvant chemotherapy is alive at 15 months of diagnosis.
Conclusion: ETMR is a rare and aggressive entity. Majority of the patients die within one year of the diagnosis despite multimodality treatment.
Keywords: Chemotherapy; Embryonal tumors with multilayered rosettes (ETMR); Radiotherapy; Surgery.
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