Development and Growth of Paediatric Brain Tumours

Dear Colleagues,

Pediatric brain tumors are the most common type of solid childhood cancer and only second to leukemia as a cause of pediatric malignancies. The types of brain tumours that occur more commonly in children include gliomas (low grade), medulloblastomas, gliomas (high grade), craniopharyngiomas, ependymomas and choroid plexus tumours.  Advances in imaging,  surgery, molecular diagnositics, epigenetics, -omics, and in other disciplines, have led to significant improvents in the diagnosis, stratification and treatment for several types of pediatric brain tumors. There are however, specific and, relatively rare types, that have remained flatlined for decades in terms of survivial (e.g. diffuse midline glioma h3 k27m-mutant).  While we celebrate the incredible successes and look forward to the continued clinical translation; focus must also continue on  improving therapies aimed to protect a developing nervous system and enhance better quality of life.  In addition, we must continue to aim to improve the survivial for those children with a dismal life expectancy. A common theme of these aims are better understanding of paediatric tumour growth in the context of neurodevelopment complexities (spatial and temporial processes).  What better way of helping the field forward than to have a multidisciplinary special issue connecting the expertise of brain development with paediatric neuro-oncology? Understanding paediatric brain cancer in the context of a developing nervous system is vital for successful clinical translation. 

We would like to encourage you to submit to this multidisciplinary Special Issue your original research papers, short communications of preliminary results, review articles, or commentaries. Our aim is to stimulate discussion of the intersection of developmental neurobiology and neuro-oncology; highlight approaches to distinguish pathways that are critical for development vs tumour growth, their relevance to targeted therapies and neurocognition function and other associated issues. We welcome disciplines including basic science, pre-clinical, imaging, mathematical modeling and clinical areas. Feel free to contact us if you have an idea that would like to discuss prior to submission.

Dr. Helen Fillmore
Dr. Beth Coyle
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• paediatric brain cancer
• Neuro-oncology
• diagnosis
• therapy (radio, proton beam, targeted)