• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 1993

Treatment of cerebellar medulloblastoma has been much improved with modern surgical technique for gross total tumor removal and adequate radiation therapy for the whole craniospinal axis. Questions have been arosen about the optimal radiation dose for the preventive treatment of whole cranium and whole spinal axis. Recently, many authors have reported their treatment results as comparable to older data, using lower than conventional dose of 3,600 cGy-4,000 cGy. For 50 patients treated between 1981 and 1990 at the Department of Radiation Therapy of SNUH, retrospective analysis was done for the treatment result, especially the neuraxis control, by radiation dose for the presymptomatic area of the disease. Analysis only by total spinal dose did not give any significant difference. But further analysis by following patient group; 3,600 cGy/150 cGy (n=6), 3,000 cGy/150 cGy (n=10), 2,400 cGy/150 cGy (n=17) and 2,400 cGy/100-120 cGy (n=11) showed significant improvement of neuraxis control by decreasing order (p =0.003). There was no significant difference in overall survival between the groups. For the 19 patients who had been confirmed initially as having no neuraxis disease, TDF 30 was the cur-off value that could prevent neuraxis failure (p =0.004). We couldn't define any TDF value that give reasonable control for the patient group with positive CSF study at initial diagnosis.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2000

Purpose : This study was peformed to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerance of craniospinal irradiation for patients with modulloblastoma and to define the optimal radiotherapeutic regimen. Materials and Methods : We retrospectively analyzed the records of 43 patients with modulloblastoma who were treated with external beam craniospinal radiotherapy at our institution between May, 1984 and April, 1998. Median follow up period was 47 months with range of 18 to U months. Twenty seven patients were male and sixteen patients were female, a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. Surgery consisted of biopsy alone in 5 patients, subtotal excision in 24 patients, and gross total excision in 14 patients. All of the patients were treated with craniospinal irradiation. All of the patients except four received at least 5,000 cGy to the posterior fossa and forty patients received more than 3,000 cGy to the spinal cord. Results : The overall survival rates at 5 and 7 years for entire group of patients were 57$\%$ and 56$\%$, respectively. Corresponding disease free survival rates were 60$\%$ and 51$\%$, respectively, The rates of disease control in the posterior fossa were 77$\%$ and 67$\%$ at 5 and 7 years. Gross total excision and subtotal excision resulted in 5 year overall survival rates of 76$\%$ and 66$\%$, respectively, In contrast, those patients who had biopsy alone had a 5 year survival rate of only 40$\%$. Posterior fossa was a component of failure in 11 of the 18 recurrences. Seven recurrences were isolated to the posterior fossa. Four patients had neuraxis recurrences, three had distant metastasis alone and four had multiple sites of failure, all involving the primary site. Conclusion : Craniospinal irradiation for patients with moduiloblastoma is an effective adjuvant treatment without significant treatment related toxicitles. There is room for Improvement in terms of posterior fossa control, especially in biopsy alone patients. The advances in radiotherapy including hypefractionation, stereotactic radiosurgery and 3D conformal radiotherapy would be evolved to improve the tumor control rate at primary site.