Introduction: Primary fibrosarcomas of the brain are very rare tumors, so that information regarding the treatment is scarce. We report the contributions that different therapeutic options made to the treatment of a child with one of these aggressive tumors.
Case report: A 13-year-old boy underwent a complete resection of a left temporo-parietal mass that had been diagnosed as a fibrosarcoma by two independent pathologists. Adjuvant chemotherapy with vincristine, actinomycin-D, ifosfamide and Adriamycin was started, but after 3 months tumor relapse was evident. The boy subsequently received radiation therapy during which there was evidence of progressive tumor shrinkage. A second surgery was performed 6 months after radiotherapy and a small enhancing lesion, revealed to be gliosis, was resected. The child remains alive and well 44 months after diagnosis.
Conclusion: Our experience supports the importance of total resection followed by radiation therapy, and radiotherapy should be started as soon as possible after surgical resection, rather than administering chemotherapy first.