New Molecular Targets and Treatments for Pediatric Brain Tumors

Abstract

The outstanding progress in advanced molecular technologies has provided a tremendous amount of data that has altered the way in which we classify and categorize pediatric brain tumors. From the initial identification of chromosomal aberrations by karyotyping and com‐ parative genomic hybridization, we have rapidly moved to expression array studies and to integrative genomic approaches which allowed the stratification of several pediatric brain tumors into molecular subgroups. These data have not only increased our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of pediatric brain tumors, but have also identified prognostic markers and opened new avenues for targeted therapies.