ABSTRACT
The need for better modalities of treatment now is dire. Traditional risk stratification of medulloblastoma has divided patients into two basic categories, i.e. average-risk and high-risk groups, based on age, extent of post-operative residual disease, and metastases at diagnosis. Older children with near total tumor resection and no metastases at diagnosis are considered to have the best prognosis, being placed in the average-risk group with a five-year event-free survival of approximately 80%. Patients in the high-risk group expectedly fare worse due to age-related restrictions on available treatment modalities. The perplexing issues of: suboptimal cancer therapy for high-risk patients leading to higher mortality and treatment-related long-term morbidity in average-risk patients serve as the impetus for discovery of improved modalities of treatment, without age-based restrictions or post-treatment toxic effects. During embryonic growth, neural precursor cells generated in the rhombic lip of the dorsal hindbrain migrate along the surface of the cerebellum to form the external granule layer.
