Klin Onkol 2003; 16(Suppl 2003): 117-118.
Summary: Neoadjuvant (presurgical) chemotherapy has an important role in the treatment of various types of malignancies in children. It has been used with increasing frequency during eighties and nineties. The neoadjuvant chemotherapy is mainly used in chemosensitive tumors: nephroblastoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing’s/PNET tumors, malignant mesenchymal tumors, liver tumors, germ cell tumors or retinoblastoma. The main role of presurgical treatment is to shrink the primary tumor and facilitate limited resection of primary tumor. In addition the preoperative chemotherapy plays very important role in the treatment of micrometastases known to be present in the majority of patients. One of the most compelling rationals for presurgical chemotherapy is its use as in vivo drug trial to determine the drug sensitivity which cannot be provided during adjuvant chemotherapy.
