Preclinical Models of Craniospinal Irradiation for Medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma is an embryonal tumor that shows a predilection for distant metastatic spread and leptomeningeal seeding. For most patients, optimal management of medulloblastoma includes maximum safe resection followed by adjuvant craniospinal irradiation (CSI) and chemotherapy. Although CSI is crucial in treating medulloblastoma, the realization that medulloblastoma is a heterogeneous disease comprising four distinct molecular subgroups (wingless [WNT], sonic hedgehog [SHH], Group 3 [G3], and Group 4 [G4]) with distinct clinical characteristics and prognoses has refocused efforts to better define the optimal role of CSI within and across disease subgroups. The ability to deliver clinically relevant CSI to preclinical models of medulloblastoma offers the potential to study radiation dose and volume effects on tumor control and toxicity in these subgroups and to identify subgroup-specific combination adjuvant therapies. Recent efforts have employed commercial image-guided small animal irradiation systems as well as custom approaches to deliver accurate and reproducible fractionated CSI in various preclinical models of medulloblastoma. Here, we provide an overview of the current clinical indications for, and technical aspects of, irradiation of pediatric medulloblastoma. We then review the current literature on preclinical modeling of and treatment interventions for medulloblastoma and conclude with a summary of challenges in the field of preclinical modeling of CSI for the treatment of leptomeningeal seeding tumors.