The Effectiveness of Chemotherapy for Childhood Medulloblastoma (<Special Issue>Topics of Malignant Brain Tumors)

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Medulloblastoma is the most common childhood malignant brain tumor. Medulloblastoma is a chemosensitive tumor, with a high response rate to a variety of chemotherapies, including cisplatinum and cyclophosphamide and drug combination regimens. There is increasing evidence that the addition of chemotherapy during and following radiotherapy improves survival for children with medulloblastoma ; as survival rates of greater than 80% as 5 years following diagnosis have been reported. The addition of chemotherapy may allow a reduction in the amount of radiotherapy required for disease control. Chemotherapy alone may be effective therapy for some infants with medulloblastoma. High-dose chemotherapy supplemented with autologous bone marrow rescue or peripheral stem cell support benefits children with recurrent disease and may have a role for patients with newly-diagnosed extensive medulloblastomas or very young children with disease.