Can children get brain or spinal tumors, and what is the outlook for a child with a tumor?

Unfortunately, children can develop tumors in the brain or spine. In fact, brain tumors are the second most common type of childhood cancer (after leukemia). The types of tumors children get are often different from adult tumors – for example, juveniles might develop medulloblastomas, pilocytic astrocytomas, ependymomas, or others. The good news is that many pediatric brain tumors are quite treatable. Treatment usually involves surgery (to remove as much of the tumor as safely possible) and may be followed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy, depending on the tumor type. Children actually often handle chemotherapy better than adults, and special protocols exist to treat pediatric tumors. The prognosis or outlook varies by tumor type and location, but it has improved dramatically over the past few decades. While the word “tumor” is scary, families can take heart that there is a lot of hope – most pediatric tumors can be treated, and the majority of children survive and even thrive after treatment