Patient demographics and baseline characteristics
Patient characteristics are detailed in Table 2 andFigure 1 demonstrates place of birth of the patients. Between
January 1997 and December 2013, there were 89 patients diagnosed with
medulloblastoma that were included in this study with nearly half of the
patients originated from Lima (n=43, 48%, Figure 1). The median age was
8.1 years (range: 2.9-13.9 years) with a male: female ratio was 1.62:1.
The most common presenting symptoms at presentation were headache
(96%), ataxia (88%), and nausea/vomiting (87%). Details regarding
histology were available in 45/89 patients. Of these 45 patients,
histologic subtypes included classic medulloblastoma (n= 21, 47%),
desmoplastic/extensive nodularity (n=13, 29%), and large
cell/anaplastic subtypes (n=11, 24%). Cases of unclassified
medulloblastoma occurred almost entirely prior to 2008. Due to an
increased availability of MRI and/or CSF examination for patients who
were treated post-2008 (n=38) there are additional details on risk
stratification and metastatic stage. While 20 (52%) of post-2008
patients presented without evidence of metastatic disease, the majority
of non-metastatic patients were defined as high-risk due to presence of
large residual tumor (n=12, 60%).