Current studies and future directions for medulloblastoma: A review from the pacific pediatric neuro-oncology consortium (PNOC) disease working group.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant central nervous system tumor of childhood, comprising a heterogenous group of tumors each with distinct biology, clinical behavior, and prognosis. Long-term survival remains unacceptable, and those who do survive face high late mortality risk, new chronic treatment-related medical conditions, neurocognitive impairments, and poor health-related quality of life. Up-front treatment strategies now integrate molecular subgrouping with standard clinico-radiological factors to more actually risk stratify newly-diagnosed patients. To what extent this new stratification will lead to improvements in treatment outcome will be determined in the coming years. In parallel, discovery and appreciation for medulloblastoma's inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity continues growing. Clinical trials treating relapsed disease now encompass precision medicine, epigenetic modification, and immune therapy approaches. The Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (PNOC) Medulloblastoma Working Group is committed to developing clinical trials based on these evolving therapeutic strategies and supports translational efforts by PNOC researchers and the multi-stakeholder medulloblastoma community at large.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)