Infratentorial tumours in children: Neurosurgical experience and new therapeutic trends

The authors report on present therapeutic approaches to infratentorial tumours in children on the basis of their experince in a series of 107 cases. Therapy is considered from a surgical point of view and in the light of so-called complementary treatments: radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The overall result obtained with combined treatment is critically examined with regard to the more frequently occurring tumours: medulloblastoma, ependymoma, astrocytoma and brain-stem glioma. For several forms, surgical treatment alone is completely insufficient. The most recent advances in radiotherapy and chemotherapy open up new prospects. However, surgical treatment is still of primary importance, even if only for the purpose of histopathologic diagnosis, and is recommended in every case, including brain stem glioma. On the basis of these evaluations, the authors are planning a combined schedule for each oncotype.