Current status and future prospects in the field of pediatric tumors

Abstract

The field of pediatric brain tumor treatment and diagnostic analysis has been developing remarkably during the last decade. In particular, multiple tumor types have been identified from those that had been thought to be one entity due to new analysis techniques by teams studying a large number of tumor samples in Europe and North America. Although these classifications do not directly influence diagnostic differentiation and individualization of treatment, the treatment strategy can benefit in terms of (1) clear diagnosis, (2) risk classification based on the diagnosis, and (3) determining the strength of therapy depending on the risk classification. In particular, the determination of therapy strength is the most important step requiring many clinical trials. From the perspective of therapy maturity, many of the remarkable developments in recent years in the pediatric brain tumor field remain at the stage of diagnostic differentiation and risk classification. In the present review, we describe the status and future prospects in the field of pediatric brain tumors from the perspective of therapy maturity.