Neonatal Brain Tumors

Excerpt

Pediatric brain tumors are the most common type of solid childhood cancer and are only second to leukemia as a cause of pediatric malignancies. These tumors can be classified further based on the age at diagnosis. Tumors are often referred to as congenital brain tumors if diagnosed antenatally or within the first 60 days of life , or tumors of infancy if diagnosed younger than 1 year. Brain tumors in this population of patients often present in the supratentorial compartment, as compared to tumors in older children, which are most often located infratentorially. The prognosis of brain tumors in these young children depends primarily on tumor histology and extent of resection.

Brain tumors in neonates and infants pose difficult treatment challenges due to the small size of patients and limited blood volume, as well as limited adjuvant therapies due to the risk of treatment-related morbidities. With the advances in imaging techniques, molecular biology, and genetics, neonatal and infant brain tumors are increasingly being diagnosed early in the disease course, subgrouped, and treated with more targeted strategies. Despite these advances, the prognosis remains poor in a large subset of these patients.

The most common neonatal histological brain tumor subtypes include teratoma, choroid plexus tumors, desmoplastic infantile tumors (DIA/DIG), glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), and atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (ATRT). Please see StatPearls' companion resources, "Medulloblastoma" and "Ependymoma", for further information on these conditions.