Chemotherapy of Intracranial Gliomas in Children

Under specific indications, chemotherapy may play an important role in the treatment of pediatric patients with intracranial gliomas. It can be effectively administered in inoperable low-grade tumors, particularly with the use of combination regimens based on carboplatin and vincristine. In very young children with high-grade gliomas (HGG), chemotherapy may result in control of tumor growth, which allows to postpone fractionated radiation therapy (FRT). At the same time, in difference with adults, there is no current evidence that addition of chemotherapy to aggressive surgical resection followed by FRT has any positive impact on survival of pediatric patients with non-pontine HGG. Similarly, chemotherapy is seemingly non-effective in the management of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas. Novel treatment strategies in such cases are desperately needed.