title: [Adult medulloblastomas: our experience].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medulloblastomas are malignant, invasive and highly cellular tumours from the cerebellum, rarely seen in adults. We describe the experience in the treatment of this entity in our institution.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study was made including 11 adult patients with medulloblastomas confined to the craniospinal axis treated between 1984-2010. Clinical, radiological and therapeutic data were assessed during the evolution of this entity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age of patients was 30.2 years (9 women/2 men). Over 80% of the patients presented intracranial hypertension, while 54.5% presented cerebellum syndrome. Gross total surgical resection was achieved in 8 patients (72.7%) and subtotal resection in the other 3 (27.3%). All patients received craniospinal radiotherapy. After primary surgical resection, 6 patients received chemotherapy with cisplatin (CDDP) and etoposide (VP-16). During the follow up period and after a median time of 35.2 months, 4 patients (36.4%) presented with relapse, mainly in the posterior cranial fossa, managed in the majority of cases with surgical resection plus additional chemotherapy. Mean survival time was 100.3 months with a 5- and 8- year overall survival rate of 84 and 56% respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the treatment of this malignancy, gross surgical resection has a crucial role, followed as soon as possible by oncological therapy, specially radiotherapy if needed.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neurocirugía, Servicio de Anatomía Patológica, Consorcio Hospital General Universitario de Valencia, Valencia, España. ruben.rod@gmail.com
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Mena
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Barbella-Aponte
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gallego-Sánchez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barcia-Mariño
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome