Investigating Pediatric CNS tumor biology

30多年来，在改善儿童弥漫性固有桥脑胶质瘤预后方面没有取得任何进展。对于其他类型的儿童恶性胶质瘤，已经观察到预后的适度改善；这主要是由于神经外科技术。化疗药物在DIPG中没有表现出明显的活性，在幕上恶性胶质瘤中只有适度的活性。患有低级别胶质瘤的儿童存活率很高，但由于治疗，他们面临着一些终生的医疗、神经认知和心理问题。我们正在研究儿童胶质瘤的生物学，以努力更好地确定分子靶点，提高我们对这种疾病的病理生理学的理解，并改善儿童的预后(生存和生活质量)。

No progress has been made in improving the outcome of children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma in more than 30 years. For other types of pediatric malignant glioma, modest improvements in outcome have been observed; these are primarily due to neurosurgical techniques. Chemotherapeutic agents have not demonstrated significant activity in dipg and have only modest activity in supratentorial malignant gliomas. Children with low grade gliomas have high survival rates, but are faced with a number of lifelong medical, neurocognitive and psychologic issues as a result of therapy. We are studying the biology of pediatric gliomas in an effort to better identify molecular targets, improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease, and improve outcome (survival and quality of life) for children.