Individualized, Effective Care for Your Child's Brain Tumor
Appointments available within 48 hours.
Treatment of brain tumors is much different for children than for adults. It's critical to get both diagnosis and treatment from experts specialized in pediatric brain tumor care. At Mayo Clinic, you can expect the best, most advanced care for your child in a compassionate, family-friendly environment.
Why choose Mayo Clinic for...
7 Tesla MRI
Pediatric Brain Tumor Care
Neurology & Neurosurgery
The biggest brain tumor care for the smallest people.
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic is part of Mayo Clinic Children's. A team of specialists who have experience treating all types of brain tumors – both cancerous and non-cancerous – will work together to evaluate your child's tumor. Our pediatric specialists have experience across all parts of the care journey for infants, children and teenagers.
At Mayo Clinic, your family's compassionate care team puts your child first. We not only understand pediatric care, but take the time to understand what matters to you and your child so we can provide personalized care options that work.
We coordinate across many specialties and subspecialties, and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic team comes together on a weekly basis to collaborate on each treatment plan. Your child’s care team includes experts in neuroradiology, neurosurgery, neuropathology, neuro-oncology, neurology, radiation oncology, endocrinology, ophthalmology, social work, neuropsychology and physical medicine and rehabilitation. You’ll also be assigned a neuro-oncology nurse coordinator. Everyone on your child’s care team meets weekly to discuss treatment planning and help manage the details, so you can focus on your child’s healing.
Throughout your child’s care, you’ll experience both treatment and support resources just for kids. We have patient distraction entertainment systems to make treatment a little less scary, surgical navigation systems that don’t require shaving your child’s head, and a child life specialist in our radiology department.
Child Life Specialists: Supporting Your Child Every Step of the Way
At Mayo Clinic, we understand that a diagnosis of a pediatric brain tumor can be overwhelming for both children and their families. Our team of Certified Child Life Specialists is dedicated to providing age-appropriate support to help ease the stress and anxiety associated with medical experiences.
What Do Child Life Specialists Do?
- Preparation and Education: Child life specialists use age-appropriate language, visual aids, and medical play to prepare children for tests, surgeries, and other medical procedures. This helps reduce fear and anxiety by helping children understand what to expect.
- Coping Strategies: They teach coping tools and techniques, such as distraction, comfort positions, and breathing exercises, to support children during medical procedures.
- Emotional Support: Child life specialists provide individualized support to help children cope with fear, anxiety, separation, and adjustment to the hospital experience. They also create a child-friendly hospital environment to make the experience as positive as possible.
Our child life specialists work alongside the healthcare team to ensure that your child receives comprehensive care that addresses both their medical and emotional needs. They are an integral part of our commitment to providing compassionate, patient-centered care.
Tumors are unique, just like your child.
Your child is unique. That's why individualized care plans are so important. Experts at Mayo Clinic take the time to understand your child's tumor, so they provide the best treatment options. State-of-the-art technology in the hands of our highly skilled experts allows your child's care team to take a personalized approach.
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows your child’s care team to better understand the tumor, and execute the right plan. Functional MRI examinations allow the team to identify where the tumor sits in relation to the parts of the brain responsible for speech motor function, and other necessary skills. In some cases, the care team uses AI to improve the MRI detail and shorten the amount of time your child needs to spend being scanned. These imaging techniques and the experts who manage them give you the best surgical plan for your child's brain tumor.
Our neuropathology group offers cutting-edge molecular testing for pediatric brain tumors, including next-generation sequencing, chromosomal microarray analysis, and whole genome methylation analysis. These tests can help identify genomic features unique to your child’s brain tumor, and help your multidisciplinary team formulate an individualized treatment plan.
Advancing brain tumor care for your child.
Provides radiation therapy targeted to tumor cells, causing less damage to healthy cells as they continue to grow.
Helps pediatric neurosurgeons precisely locate tumors and remove them with the least invasive route.
Brings expert imaging into the operating room for fewer procedures and more accurate surgeries.
Allows surgeons to more accurately perform surgery without loss of brain function.
Helps surgeons operate without injury to critical areas of the brain.
Treats tumors that are difficult to reach with other therapies.
Such as 7-Tesla MRI to produce more detailed images of the body's interior. Detailed brain scans help Mayo Clinic care teams diagnose and treat children with brain tumors. This advanced imaging technology is key to ensuring each patient receives an accurate diagnosis to guide treatment.
At Mayo Clinic, we understand that a diagnosis of a pediatric brain tumor can be overwhelming for both children and their families. Our team of Certified Child Life Specialists is dedicated to providing age-appropriate support to help ease the stress and anxiety associated with medical experiences.
Seeing the unseeable with new imaging technology
This image displays the radiology scanned imaging from a 3 Tesla MRI. The 3 Tesla MRI, while using a less powerful magnetic field compared to the 7 Tesla MRI, still provides clear and detailed images of the body's interior. It is commonly used in clinical settings to diagnose and monitor various medical conditions, offering valuable insights for patient care and treatment planning. However, the clarity of the images produced by the 3 Tesla MRI is not as high as that of the 7 Tesla MRI, which can impact the level of detail visible in the scans.
This image showcases the radiology scanned imaging from a 7 Tesla MRI. The 7 Tesla MRI uses a stronger magnetic field to produce highly detailed images of the body's interior. The detailed brain scans generated by this advanced imaging system assist Mayo Clinic care teams in diagnosing and treating patients with brain tumors. This cutting-edge technology is crucial for ensuring patients receive accurate diagnoses, which guide effective treatment plans.
*There is a minimum weight limit for pediatric patients using the 7T MRI machine. For safety and optimal imaging quality, the minimum weight limit is 30 kilograms (approximately 66 pounds).
Leading the Way in Fertility Preservation
Mayo Clinic is at the forefront of offering fertility preservation services to children who are treated for brain cancer. We recognize the importance of preserving fertility for young patients whose treatments may impact their future ability to have children.
What is Fertility Preservation?
Fertility preservation involves saving or protecting eggs, sperm, or reproductive tissue so that a person can use them to have biological children in the future. This is particularly important for pediatric patients undergoing treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, which can affect fertility.
Our Approach to Fertility Preservation
- Comprehensive Services: Mayo Clinic offers a range of fertility preservation options, including embryo, oocyte (egg), and ovarian tissue cryopreservation. These services are available to patients from ages 0 to 17 years.
- Multidisciplinary Team: Our Pediatric Fertility Preservation Program brings together specialists from various fields, including pediatric neuro-oncologists and reproductive endocrinologists, to discuss and provide the best options for each patient and their family.
- Personalized Care: We work closely with patients and their families to create individualized fertility preservation plans that align with their treatment and future family planning goals.
An expertise-driven care plan for your child.
Mayo Clinic Children's in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota, and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.
Mayo Clinic is top ranked in more specialties than any other hospital and has been recognized as an Honor Roll member according to the U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 "Best Hospitals" rankings.
Appointments available within 48 hours.
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