A team of investigators led bySt. Jude Children's Research Hospital announces that improvements in thetreatment of the childhood brain cancer medulloblastoma have significantlyincreased the rate of survival of children with this disease.

The treatment increased the overall five-year survival for the 86children with average-risk medulloblastoma from the current rate of 70percent to 85 percent; and raised the rate of survival among the 48high-risk patients from 55 percent to 70 percent.

The investigators were able to achieve the improved survival rateswhile reducing the amount of radiation and length of chemotherapy followingsurgery in average-risk patients from levels used in standard treatments,according to Amar Gajjar, M.D., co-chair of the St. Jude Department ofOncology and director of its Neuro-Oncology Division.

The other authors of this paper include Larry Kun, Thomas Merchant,Matthew Krasin, Maryam Fouladi, Alberto Broniscer, Gregory Hale, ClintonStewart, Robert Sanford, Christine Fuller, James Boyett, Dana Wallace andRichard Gilbertson (St. Jude); Murali Chintagumpala, Shaio Woo, RobertKrance, Robert Dauser and Ching Lau (Baylor College of Medicine, Texas);Stewart Kellie and Valerie Ahern (Children's Hospital at Westmead; Sydney,Australia); and David Ashley and Greg Wheeler (Royal Children's Hospital,Melbourne, Australia).

This work was supported in part by a Cancer Center (CORE) Support Grantfrom the National Institutes of Health, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer,the Noyes Foundation and ALSAC.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized forits pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer andother catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas andbased in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries withscientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever paysfor treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance arenever asked to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, itsfund-raising organization. For more information, please visithttp://www.stjude.org .

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