Histology and molecular pathology of pediatric brain tumors

In recent years, brain tumors have become the single most frequent cause of cancer-related mortality in children, although their frequency is approximately 50% less than leukemia. According to the classification of the World Health Organization, histopathological diagnosis is of paramount importance for clinicians to choose the most appropriate treatment option and tailor treatment intensity to disease risk. However, histopathological assessment is often difficult, and adding molecular information to classic neuropathological analyses may help ensure diagnostic accuracy, improve risk stratification of patients within a given tumor entity, and help in identifying novel therapeutic targets for an individualized treatment approach. Therefore, this review focuses both on established histopathology as well as on molecular features in the most important brain tumors in children.