OBJECTIVES:
* Determine the toxicity of adjuvant dose-intensive induction chemotherapy with cisplatin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and etoposide with or without methotrexate followed by standard radiotherapy in patients with surgically resected, newly diagnosed high stage medulloblastoma or supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor, or incompletely resected ependymoma.
* Determine the response rate, time to progression, overall survival, and pattern of failure in these patients treated with this regimen.
OUTLINE: Patients receive dose-intensive induction chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin IV over 6 hours on day 0; vincristine IV on days 0, 7, and 14; and etoposide and cyclophosphamide IV over 1 hour on days 1 and 2. Patients with M1+ disease (i.e., evidence of dissemination beyond primary tumor site) also receive methotrexate IV over 4 hours on day 3. Patients receive filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously daily beginning on day 7 and continuing until blood counts recover. Chemotherapy continues every 21-28 days for a total of 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients then undergo radiotherapy 5 days a week for 6.5 weeks beginning 3-6 weeks after completion of chemotherapy.
Patients are followed at 6 weeks, then every 3 months for 2 years, every 4 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 1 year, and then annually thereafter.
PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 6-20 patients will be accrued for this study.
