SURGICAL TREATMENT RESULTS OF MEDULLOBLASTOMA: OUR CENTER EXPERIENCE
Introduction. Medulloblastomas are embryonic tumors that arise exclusively in the posterior fossa and have the potential for leptomeningeal spread. Due to the aggressive nature of the tumor and age-related features of the posterior cranial fossa in children, treatment with medulloblastoma is associated with significant complications and high mortality. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the results of surgical treatment of children with medulloblastoma treated in our center. Materials and methods. The study included the outcomes of surgical treatment of 71 patients with a verified diagnosis of "Medulloblastoma" who underwent surgical treatment on the basis of JSC "National Centre for Neurosurgery" from 2015 to 2020. Results. The average age of patients was 6.1 ± 3.3 years (1 month - 16 years). In most cases, the clinical features were presented by hypertension-hydrocephalus syndrome (94.36%). The mortality rate within 1 year was 15.49%. The number of deaths in patients with desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastomas was lower (7.31%) than in children with large-cell/anaplastic medulloblastoma (50%). Total tumor resection was associated with lower mortality (5.26%) than partial removal (15.78%). Conclusion. With a maximally safe resection and following chemoradiotherapy, the prognosis of medulloblastoma is favorable. However, improvements are required in stratifying the risk of medulloblastoma and profiling individual therapy for each child based on the molecular type in order to increase survival rates and decrease relapses.