Recurrent Cancer Patients may benefit from chemotherapy if tumors recur after maximum surgery and radiation therapy . Carboplatin has shown promise. No standard agents have a high degree of response, although cyclophosphamide , cisplatin and the nitrosoureas may be useful. Consideration should be given to clinical trials . For the child under the age of five with disease progression , chemotherapy would be the first choice for salvage therapy.
Cerebral Astrocytoma
High Grade
Sometimes called anaplastic astrocytoma or glioblastoma multiforme, these tumors
often grow rapidly and involve portions of the brain that cause major neurological problems.
Standard Treatment Treatment includes surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Radiation is given after as complete a surgical resection as possible to an area that encompasses the entire tumor and sometimes the whole brain.
A Children's Cooperative Group study with radiation therapy and three chemotherapy agents (vincristine + lomustine + prednisone) produced a 40 percent survival of three years compared with 13 percent for children treated with radiation therapy alone. Again, children under the age of three may receive chemotherapy to delay or modify radioth
