MEDULLOBLASTOMA OF THE CEREBELLUM

Abstract

THE RESULTS of treatment of medulloblastoma of the cerebellum as reported in the literature have been uniformly depressing. 1 When Bailey and Cushing first segregated this neoplasm from the general group of gliomas, the average life expectancy for patients treated by operation alone was about seven months; the addition of postoperative irradiation extended the average survival from onset of symptoms to seventeen to nineteen months. With improved radiation technics, the average survival was increased to two or three years. However, cases of longer survival have been reported. 2 The exact number of such cases is difficult to determine from the data presented in the literature. Many of the pertinent cases appear in more than one report without exact identification; often the survival status is not clearly given. There appear to be approximately 27 patients who survived more than three years. Of these, apparently 12 were alive three to nine years