Medulloblastoma in children: a 32-year experience from a single institution

We retrospectively evaluated 203 patients newly diagnosed with medulloblastoma between 1975 and 2006. All patients underwent surgical resection and after surgery were treated with a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. CCNU-based protocols were used in the early years, with CDDP+VP16 being used more recently. Radiotherapy was used in patients older than three years of age according to the protocols. One hundred fifteen patients had total surgical resection, 78 had subtotal resection, and 4 patients had only a biopsy. Every patient received chemotherapy: 124 with the CCNU-based protocol, 75 with CDDP+VP16, and 4 with other protocols. Overall (OS) and event free-survival (EFS) rates were 43.1 and 41.9% in the whole group, with a median follow-up time of 8 years. OS rates for patients with and without spinal seeding were 30 and 63.1% (P = 0.0002). OS rates for males and females were 36.2 and 54.7% (P = 0.03). OS rates for patients receiving the CCNU and CDDP+VP16 protocols were 41.1 and 45%.