High dose chemotherapy with stem-cell transplantation in a metastatic medulloblastoma in an adult: a case report and review of the literature.

Medulloblastoma is a rare tumor in adult. High doses of megavoltage irradiation of the posterior fossa have been resulted in a better survival (48 to 78% at 5 years) of the patient. It is sensitive to a wide variety of chemotherapy drugs, but adjuvant chemotherapy has not been proved effective in adults although data are limited. We report the case of a cerebellar medulloblastoma with bony and medullar metastases. High-dose chemotherapy with peripheral stem-cell transplantation was performed while the patient was in remission following conventional chemotherapy. Complete remission lasted for 8 months. This therapeutic approach of metastatic medulloblastoma might be of value as this tumor is chemosensitive and not cured by conventional treatment. Internal radiotherapy by Samarium-153 was also carried out and proved to be an effective palliative treatment of pain.