[Treatment of medulloblastoma--the pediatric oncologist's viewpoint (author's transl)]

Within the interdisciplinary therapy team, the pediatrician is in charge of the clinical diagnosis, the application and control of chemotherapy as well as the follow-up of the patients. Th value of chemotherapy for the treatment of the medulloblastoma is still under discussion. However, a certain improvement of the survival rates of patients treated additionally by chemotherapy as against only postirradiated patients can be seen from the results of some recent international, co-operative, prospective, and randomized studies. New ways of treatment should be tried out in order to further improve the therapy results and to reduce the side effects caused by the treatment. Thus co-operative therapy study conducted since 1980 by the Society of Pediatric Oncology recommends the administration of an intensive chemotherapy during eight to ten weeks between operation and irradiation. The reasons of this therapeutic conception are explained and the experiences obtained hitherto are presented.