Dr. Merchant on Incidence of Craniopharyngioma

Thomas E. Merchant, DO, PhD, a faculty member and chair of the Radiation Oncology Department, Baddia J. Rashid Endowed Chair in Radiation Oncology, and Chairman of Radiation Oncology Discipline in the Children's Oncology Group at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, discusses the incidence of craniopharyngioma.

The primary treatments approaches that are used in patients with craniopharyngioma include surgery and radiation, and chemotherapy is also utilized, Merchant says. Because no agents have specifically been approved for use in the treatment of this disease, in part due to its rarity, Merchant adds.

When examining incidence rates from the annual Central Brain Registry of the United States, approximately 100 cases of craniopharyngioma are reported each year in patients under the age of 15 years; approximately 125 cases per year are observed if the age group is expanded to those between 18 and 21 years, according to Merchant. This is a rare tumor type, with most cancer institutions only seeing 1 or 2 cases every year, Merchant concludes.