Childhood Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors Treatment Overview (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

BRAIN CANCER

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Changes to This Summary (08/02/2017)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

This summary was comprehensively reviewed.

General Information About Childhood Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors

Added Louis et al. as reference 2.

Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors

This section was extensively revised.

General Approach to Care for Children with Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors

Revised text to state that the cause of most childhood brain tumors remains unknown; however, germline mutations are becoming increasingly recognized as cancer-predisposing, as they are identified in up to 8% of children with cancer (cited Zhang et al. as reference 2).

Treatment of Newly Diagnosed and Recurrent Childhood Brain Tumors

Revised text to state that with advances in molecular data, it is conceivable that genomic factors will refine classification approaches and will be used progressively more to stratify patients entered on clinical trials.

Revised the Table to reflect the recent changes to the World Health Organization classification of central nervous system tumors.

Revised text to state that biopsy or surgical re-resection may be necessary for confirmation of relapse and/or tumor transformation over time, including change in grade and molecular makeup (cited Morrissy et al. and Mistry et al. as references 1 and 2, respectively). Also added Packer et al. as reference 3.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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Treatment of Newly Diagnosed and Recurrent Childhood Spinal Cord Tumors

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About This PDQ Summary

Childhood Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors Treatment Overview (PDQ®)—Health Professional Version - National Cancer Institute