DNA content and other prognostic features in childhood medullohlastoma: Proposal of a scoring system

Abstract

The authors reviewed clinical features, surgical extent of resection, histologic parameters, and DNA content in 55 children with medulloblastomas and found that complete or near total resection, absence of tumor dissemination, tumor DNA aneuploidy, and low proliferative index correlated with a favorable clinical outcome. A scoring system was developed based upon these features to identify patients who, in the future, may beneit from more aggressive or novel therapeutic regimens. Patient age and sex and adjuvant chemotherapy did not significantly correlate with long‐term survival. The data also suggest that tumors that have been designated as cerebellar neuroblastomas may be a distinct group of posterior fossa tumors, which may have a better prognosis. Copyright © 1992 American Cancer Society