[Chemotherapy of malignant brain tumors in childhood]

The best conventional care for medulloblastoma and malignant ependymoma in children consists of surgery and radiotherapy. The preliminary observations of some authors suggested that chemotherapy could be useful in treating these tumors. The two major experiences in this field are those from SIOP and CCSG -RTOG trials which used chemotherapy as adjuvant to surgery and radiotherapy. In such studies chemotherapy appears to be effective mostly in high-risk patients. A study performed by Italian Child's Neurooncology Group ( ICNG ) confirms the preceding results.