Brain cancer is the primary cause of cancer mortality in children but even when the cancer is cured, the stress of treatment can be harmful to developing brains.
The search is always on for gentler cures and the PedBrain consortium, launched in 2010, has published the results of the first 96 genome analyses of pilocytic astrocytomas.
Pilocytic astrocytomas are the most common childhood brain tumors. They usually grow very slowly and are often difficult to access by surgery and cannot be completely removed, which means that they can recur. The disease may thus become chronic and have debilitating effects for affected children.