Roger J. Packer, MD

Pediatric brain tumors are the second most common form of cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in pediatrics. Until recently, the majority of research in pediatric brain tumors was focused on the highly aggressive embryonal tumors, such as medulloblastoma, and there have been recent dramatic advances in the understanding of this subset of tumors.

Brain tumors remain a highly problematic form of childhood cancer, representing in total the second-most common form of neoplasm and the one with the highest morbidity of those occurring in patients younger than 18. With some notable exceptions, which will be discussed, prognosis for childhood brain tumors has not changed dramatically over the past quarter century. Neuroimaging has greatly advanced; neurosurgery has become more technologically driven and possibly safer, radiation therapy has become more precise, and chemotherapy has been more judiciously employed; yet, outcomes have not kept pace with these advances.