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[Malignant cerebral tumors in children]
1Institut Curie, service d'oncologie pédiatrique, Paris.
Insights
Malignant brain tumors are the leading cause of solid tumors in children, often presenting with intracranial hypertension. Advances in neurosurgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy improve outcomes while minimizing long-term side effects.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Oncology
- Neuro-oncology
Context:
- Malignant brain tumors are the primary cause of solid tumors in children.
- They represent a significant cause of cancer-related mortality in pediatrics.
- Intracranial hypertension is the most common presentation of these tumors.
Purpose:
- To review recent therapeutic advances in pediatric brain tumors.
- To emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary care and clinical trials.
- To highlight the need for reduced toxicity in treatment to mitigate long-term sequelae.
Summary:
- Pediatric malignant brain tumors, including medulloblastoma, glioma, and ependymoma, require prompt diagnosis via emergency neuroradiological exploration due to signs like intracranial hypertension.
- Significant progress in neurosurgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy has been achieved in the past decade.
- Current treatment strategies prioritize effectiveness alongside reduced toxicity to prevent long-term central nervous system damage in children.
Impact:
- Improved survival rates for children with malignant brain tumors.
- Reduced incidence of long-term neurodevelopmental deficits in pediatric cancer survivors.
- Enhanced understanding and implementation of multidisciplinary care protocols for pediatric neuro-oncology.
Abstract:
Malignant brain tumours (mainly medulloblastoma, glioma, and ependymoma) are the first cause of solid tumours in children, and a major cause of mortality from cancer in paediatrics. The most frequent circumstance of discovery is intracranial hypertension. Early and atypical signs should give the alarm and call for emergency neuroradiological explorations. Major therapeutic advances have been made in the last ten years in the fields of neurosurgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy of brain tumours in children. Multidisciplinary care is now indispensable usually as part of multicentre cooperative clinical trials. Therapeutic approaches are guided by a concern not only for effectiveness, but also for low toxicity, in order to reduce the long-term sequelae often caused by irradiation of the developing central nervous system.