Medulloblastoma is the most common childhood primary CNS tumor, and treatment approaches have evolved over the past three decades. The biologic underpinnings of medulloblastoma are not fully characterized, but recent work has identified new, important directions for research. Stratification of patients with medulloblastoma into risk groups is the backbone of most ongoing therapeutic studies. Pa...

PAX2 is a paired box transcription factor possessing a fundamental role in the embryogenesis of hindbrain and urinary tract. PAX genes are proto-oncogenes, PAX2 expression may contribute to the pathogenesis of renal cell carcinoma. Because of the expression of PAX2 in the developing hindbrain and its essential role in cerebellar development, it ha...

Although treatment of medulloblastoma has improved, at least 30% of patients with this tumor die of progressive disease. Unfortunately, many of the children who survive suffer long-term treatment-related morbidity. Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of using oncolytic viruses to eradicate brain tumors. The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of measles virus in treatin...

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant tumor of childhood. Neuroimaging can play a role in the diagnosis of medulloblastoma, however atypical features do exist [2]. We report the case of a 1 year and 10month-old infant diagnosed with a medulloblastoma with what we term “excessive” nodularity based on neuroimaging features and confirmed by neuropathology. CT-scan (CT) and magnetic resonanc...

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. In mice, Ptc1 haploinsufficiency and disruption of DNA repair (DNA ligase IV inactivation) or cell cycle regulation (Kip1, Ink4d, or Ink4c inactivation), in conjunction with p53 dysfunction, predispose to medulloblastoma. To identify genes important for this tumor, we evaluated gene expression profiles in medulloblastomas from ...

Purpose: Medulloblastoma in children can be categorized into at least four molecular subgroups, offering the potential for targeted therapeutic approaches to reduce treatment-related morbidities. Little is known about the role of tumor microenvironment in medulloblastoma or its contribution to these molecular subgroups. Tumor microenvironment has been shown to be an important source for therape...

The objective of this study was to identify differentially expressed and prognostically important genes in pediatric medulloblastoma and pediatric ependymoma by Affymetrix microarray analysis. Among the most discriminative genes, three members of the SOX transcription factor family were differentially expressed. Both SOX4 and SOX11 were significantly overexpressed in medulloblastoma (median, 11...

Incidence of medulloblastoma is 1.5-2 cases per 100,000 population, with 350 new cases in the United States each year. Although the majority occur as sporadic cases, hereditary conditions have been associated with medulloblastoma, including (1) Gorlin syndrome (nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome), (2) blue rubber-bleb nevus syndrome, (3) Turcot syndrome (eg, glioma polyposis syndrome), and (4...

The association between cerebellar medulloblastoma and syringomyelia is uncommon and only found in pediatric patients. To date, adult medulloblastoma associated with syringomyelia has not been reported in the literature. Paroxysmal bradycardia is an uncommon clinical manifestation in posterior fossa tumors and likely to be vagally mediated via brainstem preganglionic cardiac motor neurons. This...

PURPOSE Medulloblastoma in children can be categorized into at least four molecular subgroups, offering the potential for targeted therapeutic approaches to reduce treatment-related morbidities. Little is known about the role of tumor microenvironment in medulloblastoma or its contribution to these molecular subgroups. Tumor microenvironment has been shown to be an important source for therapeu...