Past, present, and future strategies in the treatment of high-grade glioma in children

Unlike high-grade glioma in adults, these tumors represent a minority of all primary central nervous system neoplasms in the pediatric age group (< 22 years). Treatment is quite challenging because of the resistance of high- grade glioma in children to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Whereas maximum resection and radiotherapy are the mainstay of treatment for this type of tumor in children > 3 years, the role of chemotherapy is less clear. Despite the use of multimodality therapy, less than 20 percent of these children are long-term survivors. This review provides an overview of relevant past, current and future treatment strategies for high-grade glioma in children.