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JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002 94(4):240-241; doi:10.1093/jnci/94.4.240
© 2002 by Oxford University Press
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Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 94, No. 4, 240-241, February 20, 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press

EDITORIAL

Polyomavirus and Medulloblastoma: A Smoking Gun or Guilt By Association?

Howard A. Fine

Correspondence to: Neuro-Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (e-mail: hfine@mail.nih.gov).

Brain tumors are an important cause of cancer morbidity and mortality, particularly in children, where it will soon surpass leukemia as the leading cause of pediatric cancer-related deaths in the United States. Although the actual incidence of primary brain tumors is relatively low compared with the more common epithelial tumors, their significant contribution to the overall cancer mortality in this country is a testament to their lethality. Therapeutic advances for primary brain tumors have come painstakingly slowly as a result of both their intrinsic resistance to standard cytotoxic therapies as well as their anatomical location within the exquisitely sensitive tissue of the central nervous system (CNS), limiting the extent to which surgical resection and radiation therapy can be safely accomplished. Medulloblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumors in children, are embryonal tumors (formally described as primitive neuroectodermal tumors, or PNETs) of the cerebellum and account for approximately 20% of all . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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