Results of a Randomized Study of Preradiation Chemotherapy Versus Radiotherapy Alone for Nonmetastatic Medulloblastoma: The International Society of Paediatric Oncology/United Kingdom Children’s Cancer Study Group PNET-3 Study

Purpose: To determine whether preradiotherapy (RT) chemotherapy would improve outcome for Chang stage M0–1 medulloblastoma when compared with RT alone. Chemotherapy comprised vincristine 1.5 mg/m2 weekly for 10 weeks and four cycles of etoposide 100 mg/m2 daily for 3 days, and carboplatin 500 mg/m2 daily for 2 days alternating with cyclophosphamide 1.5 g/m2. Patients and Methods: Patients aged 3 to 16 years inclusive were randomly assigned to receive 35 Gy craniospinal RT with a 20 Gy posterior fossa boost, or chemotherapy followed by RT. Results: Of 217 patients randomly assigned to treatment, 179 were eligible for analysis (chemotherapy + RT, 90 patients; RT alone, 89 patients). Median age was 7.67 years, and median follow-up was 5.40 years. Overall survival (OS) at 3 and 5 years was 79.5% and 70.7%, respectively. Event-free survival (EFS) at 3 and 5 years was 71.6% and 67.0%, respectively. EFS was significantly better for chemotherapy and RT (P = .0366), with EFS of 78.5% at 3 years and 74.2% at 5 year...