Giant infra and supratentorial medulloblastoma in an under 3 years old child

Abstract

We report a very unusual case of giant medulloblastoma with supratentorial extension of a 3-year-old boy, who had been treated over a two-year period. As he was considered at the eleventh month of life, as a case out of surgical resources because of poor prognostic and a short life expectancy, the child was operated eight months later in our department despite the huge dimensions of infra and supratentorial tumoral extensions. Adequate chemotherapy regimen conducted to decrease and even neuroradiological disappearance of some tumor reminiscence after subtotal surgical ablation. The purpose of this case study is to discuss certain aspects of the sequential surgical treatment and associate chemotherapy, and also to discuss where the limits are, if there are any in the multimodal treatment. We consider it a very illustrative case for what surgery along with adequate regimen of chemotherapy can obtain in patients under 3 years old with radiosensitive tumors: it prolongs survival over 3 years and makes children able to benefit from radiotherapy at appropriate age.

Keywords

• medulloblastoma
• multiple stage surgery
• chemotherapy