Medulloblastoma in young children.
In early childhood medulloblastoma, three distinct treatment strategies are currently used by different national groups to improve survival rates and to delay or avoid craniospinal radiotherapy: (1) systemic chemotherapy and high-dose chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy at relapse; (2) systemic and intraventricular chemotherapy; (3) systemic chemotherapy and local conformal radiotherapy. A role for high-dose chemotherapy to delay or avoid craniospinal radiotherapy as a part of multimodal treatment strategies, especially in young children with metastatic or postoperative residual disease, has been recognized by different co-operative groups. Clinical and histological factors such as nodular-desmoplastic variants are considered as important prognostic factors for risk-adapted treatment recommendations.
Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. s.rutkowski@uke.de
Stefan
S
Rutkowski
Bruce
B
Cohen
Jonathan
J
Finlay
Roberto
R
Luksch
Vita
V
Ridola
Dominique
D
Valteau-Couanet
Junichi
J
Hara
Maria-Luisa
ML
Garre
Jacques
J
Grill
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002528:Cerebellar Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000628:therapy*; D011878:Radiotherapy
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents