The molecular biology of medulloblastoma metastasis

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor of childhood and a significant contributor to pediatric morbidity and death. While metastatic dissemination is the predominant cause of morbidity and mortality for patients with this disease, most research efforts and clinical trials to date have focused on the primary tumor; this is due mostly to the paucity of metastatic tumor samples and lack of robust mouse models of MB dissemination. Most current insights into the molecular drivers of metastasis have been derived from comparative molecular studies of metastatic and non-metastatic primary tumors. However, small studies on matched primary and metastatic tissues and recently developed mouse models of dissemination have begun to uncover the molecular biology of MB metastasis more directly. With respect to anatomical routes of dissemination, a hematogenous route for MB metastasis has recently been demonstrated, opening new avenues of investigation. The tumor micro-environment of the primary and metastatic niches has also been increasingly scrutinized in recent years, and further investigation of these tumor compartments is likely to result in a better understanding of the molecular mediators of MB colonization and growth in metastatic compartments.