New treatments in pediatric brain tumors

Opinion statement The management of childhood brain tumors is likely to change dramatically during the next few years. Current treatment has improved outcome in some types of brain tumors, but for most patients, survival rates have not changed during the past two decades. Advances in surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy are likely to marginally increase survival, and possibly improve the quality of life for long-term survivors. As the molecular factors underlying childhood brain tumors are better elucidated, molecular-targeted therapy will become a major modality of treatment with the promise of not only increasing the likelihood of survival, but also decreasing treatment-related sequelae.