Brain tumours are the leading cause of death in children with any type of cancer. Every year in India approximately 60,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour, in which 1 out of 5 is a child. It affects children of all ages from newborns to older children. Less than 6% of these children can get the right treatment due to difficulties with access to specialised paediatric neurosurgical care apart from the ever-present financial constraints.

Tumours can also range from being very benign to extremely malignant. The treatment options for brain tumours are surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Post-treatment, long term follow up helps avoid cancer from recurring. Other side effects of treatment include potentially lower neural development which affects learning abilities and quality of life. These concerns also need to be addressed during the primary treatment process.

The advancement in pediatric neuro-oncology has been positive, improving outcomes and long-term survival. This has been possible with better and safer imaging, improvement in surgical techniques with better surgical tools, improved anaesthetic care and critical care, better modalities of radiation therapy and newer chemotherapeutic drugs.