Medulloblastoma in children under the age of three years: a retrospective Canadian review

Abstract

Children under the age of 3 with medulloblastoma have an inferior survival to older children with this disease. This study reviewed the incidence, characteristics, therapy, and outcome of children less than 36 months of age diagnosed with medulloblastoma from 1990 to 2005 in Canada. Ninety-six cases were identified with a median age at diagnosis of 19.5 months. Forty-seven percent of patients had a complete resection, 25% a 90-95% near complete resection, 20% an incomplete (10-90%) resection, and 3% biopsy only. Therapy consisted of chemotherapy (90%), high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue (13%), and radiation therapy (21%). The median survival time was 45 +/- 13.82 months. There was no significant difference in survival when comparing patients with <90% resection versus >90% resection, nor when comparing the presence of metastases versus their absence. There was a significant increase in survival time in patients who received radiation therapy compared to those who were not treated with this modality, as well as for those who were over 18 months at diagnosis compared to those under 18 months.