Myeloablative chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue for childhood central nervous system tumors.

Myeloablative chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue has been evaluated in the treatment of children and young adults with brain tumors for whom conventional therapy is either too toxic (for example, radiotherapy in infants) or ineffective (for example, recurrent malignant tumors). With this strategy, myeloablative chemotherapy is administered to patients after initial surgery, and standard-dose chemotherapy. The success of myeloablative chemotherapy depends on the histological type of tumor, extent of disease and of surgical resection, and response to prior chemotherapy. Here, we review results of myeloablative chemotherapy with hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue in brain tumors of different histologies.