Challenges in managing endocrine and metabolic dysfunction in a child with Prader–Willi syndrome and medulloblastoma

Description

Daniel Chan, Harshini Katugampola, and Mehul Dattani present in 2026 a girl whose care sits at the collision point of a genetic appetite disorder and a brain tumour. Prader-Willi syndrome brings relentless hunger, early obesity, developmental delay, and a stack of hormone failures rooted in the hypothalamus. Her medulloblastoma, a tumour of the back of the brain, demanded surgery, radiotherapy to brain and spine, and chemotherapy, each insulting the same control centre.

Afterwards she faced severe obesity and insulin resistance with impaired glucose tolerance, an underactive thyroid of central origin, adrenal insufficiency, worsening neurological decline, and severe sleep apnoea. The hardest judgement was whether to restart growth hormone, weighing its metabolic and growth benefits against oncological caution. The authors use the case to map the multidisciplinary choreography such children need, where endocrine, metabolic, and cancer teams must plan as one.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13409325