Pediatric Brain Tumor

The Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic is part of Mayo Clinic Children's Center. 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.

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.

Your child deserves the very best options for brain tumor treatment. Mayo Clinic is advancing the field of pediatric brain tumor care and bringing those advancements directly to clinical practice. Your child can benefit from:

Proton beam therapy that provides radiation therapy targeted to tumor cells, causing less damage to healthy cells as they continue to grow
Computer-assisted brain surgery that helps pediatric neurosurgeons precisely locate tumors and remove them with the least invasive route
Intraoperative MRI that brings expert imaging into the operating room for fewer procedures and more accurate surgeries
Brain-mapping techniques that allow surgeons to more accurately perform surgery without loss of brain function
Awake brain surgery that helps surgeons operate without injury to critical areas of the brain
Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) to treat tumors that are difficult to reach with other therapies

At Mayo Clinic, our pediatric neurosurgeons have extensive experience removing tumors in children. Your child will also have access to numerous clinical trials providing the latest in brain tumor care options.

Mayo Clinic Children's Center in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota according to U.S. News & World Report's "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings. The Children's Center is also a member of the Children's Oncology Group, which is a large collaboration giving children with brain tumors access to clinical trials that offer the latest in treatments for childhood cancers.

Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, recognizing scientific excellence and a multispecialty approach focused on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Mayo Clinic is consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the nation for cancer.

Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic at Mayo Clinic Children's Center

It's hard as a parent to hear the news that your child has a brain tumor. What I tell my families is that we're going to take good care of your child. That is our number one goal. One of my favorite parts of taking care of children is coming into a room of worry, and here's what we're going to do to get your child better. Parents should take their children to Mayo Clinic for the simple reasons, we have some of the best outcomes in the world. We have experts at every part of the brain. There's no tumor really that we can't tackle. We routinely get patients referred to us for tumors that are being told are inoperable. We can assemble some of the world experts in a very expedited fashion to be able to offer surgery that other places can't offer. A lot of our second opinions over a quarter have a different pathologic diagnosis when they come to Mayo. So getting the diagnosis right in the first place allows us to make sure we're doing the right thing.

We've learned at Mayo Clinic that it's not always the right decision to rush children into surgery. There are a subset of tumors that we are able to treat with, therapies that don't even require an incision. Proton beam radiation is one of the most significant advances that we have because we're allowed to minimize the side effects and injury to healthy tissue. We are able to spare hitting the heart, the lungs, essential organs that don't need radiation because there's no disease there. There's a lot of new transformative changes to improve the quality of life, to minimize the side effects. Medicines that are now allowing children to be treated successfully without losing their hair, without feeling sick. And that could include fertility preservation so that children can have a family of their own when they're older. A lot of us are all parents, and I think we all take this very personal and say if this was our child, this is what we would do and why we would do it. The best part about my job is seeing patients do well. Having a parent give me a hug five years from now and say, you cured my child. That's it.

Individualized, Effective Care for Your Child's Brain Tumor

The biggest brain tumor care for the smallest people.

Tumors are unique, just like your child.

Advancing brain tumor care for your child.

An expertise-driven care plan for your child.

When it's time to find answers, you know where to go.

Contact us to request an appointment.

Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic at Mayo Clinic Children's Center