Pediatric Brain and Spinal Cord Tumor Outcomes

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Statistics on outcomes reflect the excellent care at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. These show the percentage of patients who lived at least five years after being diagnosed with certain brain and spinal cord tumors. They are for patients:

  • Diagnosed at age 19 or younger.
  • Diagnosed between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2021.
  • Diagnosed with a malignant, invasive brain or spinal cord tumor.

Five-year survival is the standard for measuring cancer outcomes. But by definition, five-year survival rates do not reflect the treatments, technology and expertise available today. These numbers also reflect the most difficult cases because they do not include patients diagnosed with benign (not cancer) or noninvasive tumors. 

Keep in mind that these statistics are averages and cannot predict the outcome for an individual patient.  

Cancer type* U.S.** OHSU
Ependymoma and choroid plexus 83.2% 94.4%
Astrocytoma 85.4% 85.2%
Embryonal 69.8% 69.7%
Other gliomas 60.9% 66.7%
Other specified neoplasms 72.8% 100.0%
Unspecified neoplasms, not including germ cell tumors 62.8% 88.9%
Germ cell tumors 89.6% 83.1%

* As defined by the International Classification of Childhood Cancer. The first five categories are ICCC Group III, Subgroups a-f. The last category is Group Xa.

** U.S. rates are from the National Cancer Institute’s Childhood Cancer Data Initiative, National Childhood Cancer Registry Explorer