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Summary
August 2006, Vol. 6, No. 8, Pages 1211-1221
, DOI 10.1586/14737175.6.8.1211
(doi:10.1586/14737175.6.8.1211)
Review Current treatment approaches to early childhood medulloblastoma Stefan Rutkowski Treatment of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of childhood, is particularly challenging in very young children, owing to the increased susceptibility of the immature brain to treatment-induced neurocognitive deficits. Three promising strategies have been developed in combination with systemic postoperative chemotherapy, to avoid craniospinal irradiation for young children with nonmetastatic medulloblastoma, these include: high-dose chemotherapy, with and without local radiotherapy; intraventricular chemotherapy; and local radiotherapy. More intensified strategies may be required for metastatic medulloblastoma. Future studies will clarify the prognostic relevance of desmoplasia, postoperative residual tumor and biological markers to improve stratification criteria by risk-adapted treatment recommendations. An international Phase III trial for young children with nonmetastatic medulloblastoma, comparing survival rates and neurocognitive outcomes of different treatment strategies by standardized criteria, is under discussion.
Cited byYu Liang, Maximilian Diehn, Andrew W. Bollen, Mark A. Israel, Nalin Gupta. (2008) Type I collagen is overexpressed in medulloblastoma as a component of tumor microenvironment. Journal of Neuro-Oncology 86:2, 133-141 Online publication date: 1-Feb-2008. CrossRef William R Polkinghorn, Nancy J Tarbell. (2007) Medulloblastoma: tumorigenesis, current clinical paradigm, and efforts to improve risk stratification. Nature Clinical Practice Oncology 4:5, 295-304 Online publication date: 1-Jun-2007. CrossRef J. Spiga, E. A. Siegbahn, E. Br uer-Krisch, P. Randaccio, A. Bravin. (2007) The GEANT4 toolkit for microdosimetry calculations: Application to microbeam radiation therapy (MRT). Medical Physics 34:11, 4322 Online publication date: 1-Feb-2007. CrossRef
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