Brain Tumor Center

Childhood Cerebellar Astrocytoma

What is Childhood Cerebellar Astrocytoma?

The brain controls memory and learning, senses (hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch), and emotion. It also controls other parts of the body, including muscles, organs, and blood vessels.

A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue contained within the skull that can be benign (without cancer cells) or malignant (contains cancer cells). Other than leukemia and lymphoma, brain tumors are the type of cancer that occurs most commonly in children. Often cancer found in the brain has started somewhere else in the body and has spread (metastasized) to the brain. This overview covers a type of tumor, cerebellar astrocytoma, that starts in the brain (primary brain tumors).

Astrocytomas are tumors that develop from brain cells called astrocytes. Cerebellar astrocytomas occur in the area of the brain called the cerebellum, which is located at the back of the brain and controls balance and complex motor activities, including walking and talking. Cerebellar astrocytomas usually grow slowly and do not usually spread from the site in which they originated to other parts of the brain or body, although they can invade large areas. Some astrocytomas form cysts or are enclosed in a cyst.

If a child has symptoms that may be caused by a brain tumor, his or her doctor may order a computed tomographic (CT) scan, a diagnostic test that uses computers and x-rays to create pictures of the body, or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, a diagnostic test that is similar to a CT scan but that uses magnetic waves instead of x-rays.

Often, surgery is needed to determine whether there is a brain tumor and what type of tumor it is. The doctor may surgically remove a small sample of the tumor tissue and examine it under a microscope. This is called a biopsy. Sometimes a biopsy is done by making a small hole in the skull using a needle to extract a sample of the tumor.

A child's treatment and chance of recovery (prognosis) depend on the type and size of tumor, where it is located within the brain, and his or her age and general health.

This page was last updated on: February 6, 2008.