Metastatic medulloblastoma in an adult; treatment with temozolomide.

ABSTRACT

Medulloblastoma is a malignant brain tumour most frequently seen in children. Treatment of this tumour type usually consists of surgery followed by radiotherapy. Relapses of medulloblastoma are sensitive to chemotherapy and treatment with chemotherapeutics in children has increased the survival rates. A medulloblastoma at adult age is extremely rare, and there is no overall accepted treatment, especially not in the case of a relapse. Recently improvement of survival was reported in patients with glioblastoma treated with a combination of radiotherapy and concomitant temozolomide. This observation encouraged us to decide to treat an adult patient with a recurrent medulloblastoma with temozolomide. This female patient showed a recurrence of a medulloblastoma 7 years after the initial presentation with metastatic spread along the neuraxis and progressive neurological deterioration. Treatment with temozolomide resulted in relief of clinical symptoms and stabilization of tumour growth for 8 months.