AIMS To evaluate the efficacy of interstitial brachytherapy using (125)iodine ((125)I) seeds for the treatment of recurrent multimodal treated medulloblastoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between September 1989 and August 2009, 12 patients (female:male=3:9, median age 19 years, range 7-55 years) with 23 recurrent medulloblastomas underwent interstitial brachytherapy using (125)I seeds. Before brach...

PURPOSE To evaluate changes in vertebral marrow signal intensity that occur over time in children undergoing craniospinal radiation therapy, specifically evaluating for the occurrence and timing of marrow regeneration. METHODS MR images of nine pediatric patients (ages 4 to 12 years) with posterior fossa medulloblastoma who received total spinal irradiation (24 to 40 Gy) and had at least thre...

Assays of lymphocyte subpopulations and function have been performed on patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia still in remission after 18 months' treatment. The patients were subjects of a trial of the value of craniospinal irradiation in the third month of treatment in preventing central nervous system relapse. Effects of both irradiation and chemotherapy were observed. Lymphopenia was m...

The purpose of this work was to compare the risk of developing a second cancer after craniospinal irradiation using photon versus proton radiotherapy by means of simulation studies designed to account for the effects of neutron exposures. Craniospinal irradiation of a male phantom was calculated for passively-scattered and scanned-beam proton treatment units. Organ doses were estimated from tre...

BACKGROUND Our study aimed to evaluate final height in a cohort of Dutch childhood cancer survivors (CCS) and assess possible determinants of final height, including height at diagnosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS We calculated standard deviation scores (SDS) for height at initial cancer diagnosis and height in adulthood in a cohort of 573 CCS. Multivariable regression analyses were carried out to ...

A case of 47-year-old woman with a local relapse of medulloblastoma 23 years after initial presentation is reported. At the age of 24, the patient underwent resection of medulloblastoma of the right cerebellar lobe, followed by the craniospinal orthovoltage irradiation (3600 R to the brain, and 3000 R to the spinal cord). At the 21st year of follow-up, a second cancer originating in the thyroid...