title: Medulloblastoma in children under the age of three years: a retrospective Canadian review.
abstract: Children under the age of 3 with medulloblastoma have an inferior survival to older children with this disease. This study reviewed the incidence, characteristics, therapy, and outcome of children less than 36 months of age diagnosed with medulloblastoma from 1990 to 2005 in Canada. Ninety-six cases were identified with a median age at diagnosis of 19.5 months. Forty-seven percent of patients had a complete resection, 25% a 90-95% near complete resection, 20% an incomplete (10-90%) resection, and 3% biopsy only. Therapy consisted of chemotherapy (90%), high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue (13%), and radiation therapy (21%). The median survival time was 45 +/- 13.82 months. There was no significant difference in survival when comparing patients with <90% resection versus >90% resection, nor when comparing the presence of metastases versus their absence. There was a significant increase in survival time in patients who received radiation therapy compared to those who were not treated with this modality, as well as for those who were over 18 months at diagnosis compared to those under 18 months.
authors.affiliation: Division of Oncology, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, 401 Smyth Road, Ottawa K1H 8L1, Ontario, Canada. djohnston@cheo.on.ca
authors.forename: Donna L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Keene
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bartels
authors.forename: Anne-Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Carret
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Crooks
authors.forename: David D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Eisenstat
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fryer
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lafay-Cousin
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Larouche
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moghrabi
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Shayna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zelcer
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Josee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brossard
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bouffet
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis