Pediatric Brain Tumor Resources

Brain Tumor Facts
** Facts provided by the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

  • More than 359,000 people in the U.S. were living with a diagnosis of a primary brain and central nervous system tumor in the year 2000.
  • In the year 2000 more than 26,000 children in the U.S. were living with the diagnosis of a primary central nervous system tumor. Each year 3,400 new cases are diagnosed.(1)
  • Every day nine children in the U.S. are diagnosed with a brain tumor.
  • Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer death from childhood cancer, accounting for 24 percent of cancer-related deaths in 1997 among persons up to 19.(2)
  • 76 percent of children diagnosed with a brain tumor are younger than 15.
  • There are more than 120 different types of brain tumors, making effective treatment very complicated.
  • Pediatric brain tumors are different from those in adults and are often treated differently.
  • The combined five-year survival rates for childhood brain tumors has increased slowly, from 54 percent to approximately 60 percent.(3) However, for some pediatric brain tumors (e.g., brain stem gliomas, atypical teritoid/rhabdoid and glioblastoma multifome), long-term survival rates remain below 20 percent.
  • Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, their effects on a child´s physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating.
  • Quality of life for survivors of pediatric brain tumors is influenced by the long-term side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.
  • Some brain tumor survivors require physical, cognitive and rehabilitation services to allow them to return to tasks of everyday life.
  • Unlike other benign tumors, benign brain tumors may recur and may result in death.
  • Brain tumors are treated by surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, used either individually or in combination.
  • Enhancing the quality of life of children with brain tumors requires access to quality specialty care and ready availability of follow-up care and rehabilitative services.
  • Improving the outlook for children with brain tumors requires research into the causes of and better treatments for brain tumors.