[Chemotherapy of brain-tumors in children (author's transl)]

The poor permeability of the blood/brain barrier for most cytostatic agents makes it difficult to achieve an adaequate drug concentration in brain-tumors. This is the main problem in developing a chemotherapy of brain tumours. On the other hand the therapeutic effect is difficult to evaluate not only because of clinically and hitherto also technically poor accessability of the brain but also because of differences in tumour classification systems, and consequently limited comparability. There is however definite knowledge on the effectiveness of several single drugs as well as strong evidence on the effectiveness of some polychemotherapeutic programs. The measure of success presently is rather prolongation of survival time for months than a change in cure rate. A general recommendation for the cytostatic treatment of brain tumors may not be given in that situation, but within a clinical study the use of cytostatic agents seems promising anyway.