New Treatment Likely to Increase Survival Rates in Patients with Medulloblastoma – a Rare Pediatric Brain Tumor

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC)
Friday, 11 May 2001

May is National Brain Tumor Month

(Memphis, Tennessee, May 11, 2001) An ongoing study at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital indicates that a new treatment protocol could increase survival rates for some pediatric brain cancers to 80 percent for high-risk and 90 percent for standard-risk. The study appears in the May 15 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Brain Tumor Team leader and Principal Investigator Amar Gajjar, M.D., said he is encouraged with the midpoint results of a study using high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell transplantation for patients diagnosed with standard and high-risk medulloblastoma or supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET). These two forms of pediatric brain tumors affect between 200 and 250 children annually in the United States and account for 25-30 percent of all pediatric brain tumors diagnosed. The study reported results of 53 patients enrolled at the midpoint of the study, which began October 1996. Currently the protocol has 101 patients, and the team hopes to enroll a total of 135.

The current survival rate for patients with these tumors is 65 percent for those diagnosed with high-risk disease and 75 or 80 percent for those diagnosed with standard-risk disease.

"While it is still early, the results are very promising," Gajjar said. "It will be interesting to see where the numbers are in five years, but clearly children enrolled on this protocol are doing better than those enrolled on standard therapy."

Standard therapy for medulloblastoma patients is radiation followed by chemotherapy administered at standard doses for approximately 48 weeks. Gajjar's study uses higher doses of chemotherapy for a shorter period of time – 16 weeks – followed by autologous stem cell transplantation, or reintroduction of the patient's own stem cells following therapy.

St. Jude has one of the largest pediatric brain tumor program in the United States. The hospital is a member of the American Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and a charter member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Gajjar's team worked in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, and two Australian institutions: Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne; and Children's Hospital at Westmead at the University of Sydney.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tenn., was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. The hospital is an internationally recognized biomedical research center dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic diseases of childhood. The hospital's work is supported through funds raised by the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charitiesâ (ALSACâ ). All St. Jude patients are treated regardless of their family's ability to pay. ALSAC covers all costs of treatment beyond those reimbursed by third-party insurers, and total costs for families who have no insurance.

For more information, or to contact St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC), see their website at: www.stjude.org