[Therapy and prognosis of medulloblastoma]

Between 1962 and 1981, 37 patients with histologically proved medulloblastomas were treated at the Radiologic Hospital and the Children's Hospital of the University of Münster. Because of the inadequate treatment over this long period, the collective was divided into three groups. The first group comprised 18 patients, 15 of whom died after having been operated, so that they could not be submitted to a sufficient radiotherapy. Two patients were unconscious when admitted; they died without therapy. One patient was submitted to a primary palliative irradiation with 10 Gy. The second group comprised seven patients who received only a postoperative irradiation of the skull. One of these patients is alive since 228 months without any recurrence. The other six patients had an average survival time of 9,2 months. The third group comprises twelve patients who were submitted to an irradiation of the skull and an additional irradiation of the whole cerebrospinal axis. Nine of these twelve patients were also treated by chemotherapy according to the SIOP scheme. Their average survival time is 28,4 months. Five patients are still alive and have no recurrences or metastases. The best survival chances actually seem to be provided by a radiotherapy of the whole cerebrospinal axis combined with chemotherapy.