Pediatric Primary Intraspinal Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors (PNET’s): A Case Report and Analytical Review using Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

Abstract

Abstract We present a case report of a 5-year-old child with a primary Primitive Neuroectodermal tumor in the intramedullary region. We have also attempted to identify the positive prognostic factors for primary pediatric intraspinal PNETs using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). After a thorough review of all primary pediatric intraspinal PNETs, ANN analysis was used to identify factors that favorably predict the survival in these cases for more than 6 months. ANN model could predict with 84.6% accuracy the survival period for pediatric primary spinal PNET on 13 tested cases. The most important variables were Treatment (relative significance 100%), followed by the location of the tumor in the axial section (84.6%), involvement of thoracic level (62.7%), and gender (40.3%). We concluded that surgical treatment followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy offers a survival advantage as compared to any of the modalities used alone. (P = 0.071, with 100% relative importance on ANN).