[Analysis of various factors related to the prognosis of medulloblastoma]

Thirty-three patients with medulloblastoma were treated in our department by surgical resection of tumor and radio-chemotherapy, and obtained 40.1% of 5 year survival. The present study analyzed the various factors related to the prognosis from clinical and pathological points of view in our series. Good factors were extensive resection of tumor and completement of whole CNS radiationtherapy. In contrast, poor factors were the presence of subarachnoid dissemination of tumor and identification of differentiated cells in tumor tissue histologically. The protection and treatment of subarachnoid dissemination was difficult with any kind of therapy. With surgical specimens obtained from 26 patients, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neuron specific enolase (NSE) were stained immunohistochemically. Two cases out of 12 with GFAP and/or NSE positive cells are alive and their mean survival time is 27 months. On the other hand, eight cases out of 14 without GFAP nor NSE positive cells are alive and their mean survival time is 44 months.