Ten children with posterior scala tumor infiltrating the surrounding brain substance and/or the brain stem entered in the present study with preoperative chemotherapy. In 8 of the 10 cases regression and necrosis of the tumor were seen by CT examination after the preoperative therapy. The diameter of the tumor decreased on the average by 35.6% (14.0-74.3%). The main side effect was granulocytopenia. According to our observation, the preoperative therapy enables a more radical surgery in some cases of medulloblastoma and ependymoma. Further observations are necessary to confirm these preliminary results.

Long-term survivors of childhood leukemia were studied to determine their neuropsychologic status. All had had cranial irradiation 10 or more years before. The results were 1. The IQ and academic performance of 56 cured leukemic patients show no significant difference from the normal population. 2. More exact neuropsychological tests (attention, reaction time, visual-motor coordination, memory) reveal important deficits. 3. The frequency of CT aberrations in 33 study patients was 45% and showed no correlation with either the IQ or other neuropsychological results.

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Dibromdulcitol (Elobromol) has favorable pharmacokinetic parameters for the treatment of brain tumors: high spinal fluid/plasma ratio and long half-life in spinal fluid. Oral application makes its administration easy. The drug combination vincristine, procarbazine, and dibromdulcitol proved to be effective in a pilot trial on relapsed medulloblastomas: 8 complete and 4 partial remissions were achieved from 16 cases. The main side effect was granulocytopenia, which was in some cases severe. However, in the dose-schedule we used it did not delay the treatment longer than 1 week.

The SIOP brain tumor study proved the effectiveness of the chemotherapy in medulloblastoma, but its usefulness is limited. Hence the adjuvant chemotherapy of medulloblastoma is yet an open question. We examined the effectivity of a lipid soluble agent dibromdulcitol (DBD) in relapsed malignant brain tumors of children. DBD has a dulcit frame with methylbromid groups