During the period from 1979 until 1986, sixty male and female patients were treated perioperatively in the Neurosurgical Department of the Surgical Clinic and OPD of the Munich Technical University with the alkylating agent BCNU. Up to five treatment cycles were employed, the first treatment cycle being initiated pre-operatively. In none of the cases were disorders of wound healing seen. Among these sixty patients there was one case of suspected BCNU lung and one case of massive leukopenia. Considering the rate of complications described in the international literature, this figure is extremely small. As to the study of the mean survival time, only 30 patients presenting supratentorial malignant tumours of comparable localisation were included. In light of these strict criteria the perioperative BCNU treatment at our clinic resulted in a mean survival time of 67.1 weeks which in comparison with the literature can be regarded as a good result. We would therefore only recommend cytostatic treatment with peroperative administration of BCNU.