TY - JOUR
T1 - An intrathecal limited postoperative chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of young children with nodular/desmoplastic medulloblastoma and medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity
AU - Naung, Harrison
AU - Cohen, Kenneth J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Purpose: Therapy for medulloblastoma in patients < 4 years old omits radiotherapy due to anticipated neurocognitive deficits. The German Pediatric Brain Tumor Study Group described a chemotherapy regimen (HIT-SKK’ 92 and HIT-SKK 2000) without radiation which yielded a 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate of 85% in children with nodular/desmoplastic medulloblastoma (NDMB) and medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity (MBEN). We modified the HIT-SKK regimen to reduce the total number of intrathecal methotrexate (IT MTX) doses from 12 to 2 doses/cycle and obviate Ommaya reservoir implantation through the use of lumbar administration. We report the outcomes of five patients treated with our approach. Methods: IT MTX was eliminated altogether on weeks when high-dose intravenous methotrexate was administered. On weeks when no systemic methotrexate was administered, a single dose of lumbar-administered IT MTX was substituted in place of multiple intra-Ommaya doses. Cumulative dosing of MTX was 16–24 mg/cycle (age-based) compared to 24 mg/cycle in the HIT-SKK regimen. Following chemotherapy, patients were monitored with interval imaging, observation for acute and late effects, and survival. Results: Four children remained in remission 3, 5, 9, and 10 years post-treatment respectively, without observed learning difficulties. One child had recurrent tumor and metastasis 6 months post-treatment. She failed the attempted salvage regimen and continued to deteriorate, dying of disease at 3 years old. Conclusions: Review of existing literature supported our modifications well. While this report is limited by the small number of children treated, we believe there is encouraging evidence that our approach warrants further evaluation in a larger population of young children with NDMB and MBEN.
AB - Purpose: Therapy for medulloblastoma in patients < 4 years old omits radiotherapy due to anticipated neurocognitive deficits. The German Pediatric Brain Tumor Study Group described a chemotherapy regimen (HIT-SKK’ 92 and HIT-SKK 2000) without radiation which yielded a 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate of 85% in children with nodular/desmoplastic medulloblastoma (NDMB) and medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity (MBEN). We modified the HIT-SKK regimen to reduce the total number of intrathecal methotrexate (IT MTX) doses from 12 to 2 doses/cycle and obviate Ommaya reservoir implantation through the use of lumbar administration. We report the outcomes of five patients treated with our approach. Methods: IT MTX was eliminated altogether on weeks when high-dose intravenous methotrexate was administered. On weeks when no systemic methotrexate was administered, a single dose of lumbar-administered IT MTX was substituted in place of multiple intra-Ommaya doses. Cumulative dosing of MTX was 16–24 mg/cycle (age-based) compared to 24 mg/cycle in the HIT-SKK regimen. Following chemotherapy, patients were monitored with interval imaging, observation for acute and late effects, and survival. Results: Four children remained in remission 3, 5, 9, and 10 years post-treatment respectively, without observed learning difficulties. One child had recurrent tumor and metastasis 6 months post-treatment. She failed the attempted salvage regimen and continued to deteriorate, dying of disease at 3 years old. Conclusions: Review of existing literature supported our modifications well. While this report is limited by the small number of children treated, we believe there is encouraging evidence that our approach warrants further evaluation in a larger population of young children with NDMB and MBEN.
KW - Desmoplastic medulloblastoma
KW - Infant medulloblastoma
KW - Intrathecal methotrexate
KW - Medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity (MBEN)
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U2 - 10.1007/s11060-021-03727-5
DO - 10.1007/s11060-021-03727-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 33689104
AN - SCOPUS:85102615870
SN - 0167-594X
VL - 152
SP - 567
EP - 572
JO - Journal of neuro-oncology
JF - Journal of neuro-oncology
IS - 3
ER -