Abstract
We report a case of high risk medulloblastoma with leptomeningeal intracranial and spinal metastasis in a 10-year-old girl treated successfully with conventional prolonged chemotherapy without radiotherapy.
This is a particular case of medulloblastoma that at onset did not receive standard therapy for medulloblastoma i.e. neither surgery nor craniospinal irradiation. This 10-year-old Chinese girl affected with localized medulloblastoma was previously treated at a medical department in China only with radiotherapy on the posterior fossa. When the child arrived in Italy with progressed metastatic medulloblastoma, she was treated with carboplatin/etoposide association i.v. followed by oral etoposide and partial surgery of the primitive mass. The schedule of chemotherapy was etoposide 300 mg/sqm followed by carboplatin 1000 mg/sqm in one day every 21–28 days for the first six courses, then etoposide 200 mg/sqm and carboplatin 600 mg/sqm in one day every 28–35 days for further 11 courses and oral etoposide 50 mg/sqm/day for ten consecutive days and one week interval between two cycles for one year. At present the girl is alive and disease-free, and has been off-therapy for 31 months.
Interestingly, in this case a long-lasting complete remission was obtained without radiotherapy and without myeloablative chemotherapy. Oral etoposide played an important role in achieving a complete remission.
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Schiavetti, A., Varrasso, G., Maurizi, P. et al. Metastatic Medulloblastoma in 10-year-old Girl Treated Successfully with Chemotherapy without Radiotherapy. J Neurooncol 45, 55–60 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006365511379
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006365511379