Treatment includes surgery, with or without radiation therapy , and for some tumors, chemotherapy . Radiation therapy of pediatric brain tumors is very complex and should be carried out in facilities with extensive experience.
Chemotherapy has recently shown some activity in children with recurrent brain tumors and in children with high-stage medulloblastoma treated with chemotherapy prior to relapse. There is great interest in using chemotherapy after surgery as the only therapy in children under age three, since radiation therapy to the brain in this age group may seriously impair brain development.
Clinical Trials All children with brain tumors should be considered for entry into clinical trials . This form of cancer is rare in children and trials offer the advantage of the pooled experience of pediatric cancer centers around the country.
Pediatric clinical trials are designed in two ways. One method divides the children into two groups, with one receiving the best currently accepted standard treatment and the other receiving the new therapy that appears promising. The other method is to evaluate a single new treatment in all patients and then compare the results with those obtained with existing therapy, often in the same institution.
