Brain Tumor Types

There are many different kinds of brain tumors. The first way to divide brain tumors is based on whether they are primary or secondary. Primary brain tumors are tumors that begin in the brain. Secondary brain tumors are tumors that started our elsewhere in the body and spread, or metastasized, to the brain. For example, secondary brain tumors could have begun as breast or lung cancer.

Primary brain tumors can be further divided based on what type of cell the tumor began as. Some types of primary brain tumors are astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, meningiomas, medulloblastomas, neuronomas, ependymomas, craniopharingiomas, pineal tumors, germ cell tumors, and schwannomas. The name of a tumor depends in part on what kind of cell it comes from, however, they can also be named for the tumor location within the brain.

Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytomas (PLGAs) are considered primary brain tumors, which develop from astrocytoma cells, and can be named one of the following:

  1. Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma (JPA)
  2. Fibrillary Astrocytoma
  3. Protoplasmic
  4. Gemistocytic
  5. Mixed brain tumor
  6. Subependymal giant cell astrocytoma (SGCA)
  7. Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA)
  8. Pilomyxoid astrocytoma (PMA)

There are other, high grade tumors that are also named for the cell type, for example: oligodendrogliomas are from oligodendrocytes, meningiomas are from meningeal cells, medulloblastomas are from medulloblasts, etc.

Other sources for more in-depth information on children's brain tumor types and brain tumor grades can be found by consulting one of the sources below:

Organization Description

Cornell University

This website contains a description of Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma (JPA), including symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.

eMedicine

This website contains a description of Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma (JPA) and provides basic scientific background information. It also provides MRI and CT images of JPA tumors in the brain.

National Brain Tumor Foundation

This page provides basic medical information on the most frequently diagnosed brain tumor types and related information.

WebMD

This page provides general information about astrocytoma and resources for finding more information.