[Medulloblastomas: clinical, epidemiological and pathological findings in 28 cases]

Abstract

We report the clinical, epidemiological and pathological findings of 28 patients with medulloblastoma: 22 were male; age ranged from 1 to 50 years, with a mean of 15 years. The most frequent symptoms and signs were headache (64%) and vomiting (64%). Only one patient showed a desmoplastic medulloblastoma variant, the others showed classical medulloblastomas. Regarding treatment, most patients were submitted to total resection (n=10) or partial tumorectomy (n=7). A low rate of tumoral recurrence was observed, occurring in 21% of the patients (n=6) after 4 years of follow-up. Chemotherapy seemed to contribute to a lower recurrence rate amongst our patients. Our findings are similar to those reported in literature, thus helping to understand the biological behavior of this type of tumor.