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There are many different types and classifications of pediatric brain tumors, based upon cell structure, composition, rate of growth and location. A child’s tumor may have the same microscopic appearance to an adult tumor, but the mutations that cause its growth are completely different. Learn about the six most common types of childhood brain tumors.
Find out more from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Center at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.
Nine-year-old Ariana Dufane is happiest when she’s tumbling, whether she’s launching herself off the ground for a cartwheel or practicing how to perform the perfect split. In that moment, the fourth-grader focuses on nothing but strength and balance, a skill she has refined, not just in gymnastics but in life.
Born with intestinal pseudo-obstruction — a disorder of abnormal intestinal motility function that may cause the body to go into intestinal failure — Ariana’s first few months were spent in and out of emergency rooms. Her symptoms began with a distended belly and an inability to have a bowel movement.
“I could tell she was in horrible pain and I didn’t know why,” says Ariana’s mom, Lisandy Jimenez. “She would cry and break out in a sweat.”
Lisandy tried everything — removing milk from Ariana’s diet, a special formula, antibiotics and other medications. When the options ran out, she took Ariana to a gastrointestinal specialist near their home in Stamford, Connecticut. And, when he ran out of options, she traveled to a major medical center in Philadelphia.
“That’s when we got the diagnosis that it was pseudo-obstruction,” Lisandy says. …
Eight-year-old Timmy LaCorcia was having a bad day. He didn’t feel well and had to leave school early. It was frustrating — he usually had perfect attendance — but not alarming. After all, it was March, a time when children often struggle with colds and other illnesses. “We just thought he had a stomach bug,” says his mother, Gina. …
When my first period came at age 13, it involved blood clots and extreme pain. I didn’t know what to expect or what was considered “normal,” but, thankfully, my mother did. She recognized that my symptoms were unusual and immediately took me to see my pediatrician. I was first prescribed birth control pills, which seemed to help initially, but when my period remained heavy and painful, I was put on a different birth control pill that enabled me to have my period only four times a year.
I thought my situation was normal — albeit uncomfortable and inconvenient. No one ever suggested painful periods could be anything more than bad luck. I would hear women talk about menstrual cramping and see advertisements for medications to relieve menstrual symptoms … I just figured I had bad periods like so many other adolescent and adult women.
I believed that for years. …
