Because the brain controls everything from breathing and movement to speech and coordination, the diagnosis is often frightening and emotional for parents and children alike. Brain tumors in children vary in location, type, rate of growth, and how they affect a child. Cancer specialists, however, have developed nationwide standards called protocols that help determine how a child will be treated once a diagnosis is made. These protocols are based on years of tracking children with brain tumors, and they ensure that medical treatment is constantly being refined and improved. The national protocols for treating brain tumors in children ensure that there is communication between all of the leading medical centers and that your child will benefit from research and medical advances regardless of where you live.
Brain tumors are abnormal masses in or on the brain.
They develop when cells grow and divide in an uncontrolled manner and can be either primary or secondary tumors. Primary tumors are composed of cells just like those that belong to the organ or tissue where they start. A primary brain tumor starts from cells in the brain. Most brain tumors in children are primary, and at least half of all primary tumors originate from cells of the brain that support the body's nervous system. Tumors related to the nervous system are called gliomas , and they originate in the brain's glia cells.