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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of WNT-activated medulloblastoma says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. WNT-activated medulloblastoma is the rarest and most curable of the four molecular groups of medulloblastoma, a brain tumour of the cerebellum. It is driven by a mutation in the beta-catenin gene that switches the WNT growth pathway on. Almost every child is cured with standard therapy, so current trials are asking how much radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be taken away. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Maximal safe resection, 23.4 Gy craniospinal radiotherapy with tumour-bed boost (protons where available), then cisplatin, vincristine and cyclophosphamide or lomustine.
15 Gy (SJMB12) or 18 Gy (ACNS1422) craniospinal radiotherapy with reduced boost and fewer chemotherapy cycles, judged against historical survival.
High-risk therapy: 36 Gy craniospinal radiotherapy with boost and intensified chemotherapy, as for other groups.
Neurocognitive, audiological, endocrine and second-tumour follow-up for life.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.