Development of chemotherapy treatment for pediatric brain tumors.

Until relatively recently the standard treatment for the child diagnosed with a brain tumor was surgical resection followed by radiation therapy. If initial treatment failed patients were rarely referred for chemotherapy. This, in large part, was owing to the therapeutic nihilism that resulted from the disappointing experience with chemotherapy in the treatment of adults with glioblastoma multiforme. Following encouraging reports of clinical responses to chemotherapy in children with recurrent medulloblastoma, however, the value of adjuvant chemotherapy has become more accepted.