Pre- and Post-Operative Volume Estimation of Medulloblastoma Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Stereological Study

Abstract

Background: Brain tumors are among the most lethal and devastating cancers. Medulloblastoma tumor is a common solid brain malignancy, arising in the posterior fossa. Stereological methods are used in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain unbiased estimation of the total volume of the structure of interest. Objectives: In the current study, we evaluated cerebellar tumor volume pre- and post-operative in patients suffering from meduloblastoma tumor using MRI and Cavalieri method. Patients and Methods: The study was performed on 16 subjects consisting of two groups of eight people including patient and control groups. Slide direction were in both sagittal and axial planes. Pre- and post-operative volume of medulloblastoma tumor were determined on MR scanning images using the point-counting approach of Cavalieri method. Results: The post-operative tumor volume in both sagittal (P = 0.028) and axial (P = 0.046) MR images was statistically reduced by 90% compared to the pre-operative volume. Moreover, the pre-operative volume of the cerebellum in patients increased by 38% in patients as compared to the normal subjects (P = 0.028). Conclusion: It could be concluded that MRI-estimated tumor-volume might be useful in evaluating the efficiency of surgical treatment and prognostication of tumor regression rate.