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CONCLUSION
Pediatric brain tumors remain the most significant oncologic cause of death among children, and pediatric
brain tumor diagnosis and longitudinal screening is heavily reliant on MRI - a very limited and expensive
screening tool. The creation of reliable and easily deployed biomarker-based assays could dramatically
improve pediatric brain tumor detection. Early detection could, in turn, improve current care by
allowing for early surgery. Patient therapy could also be tailored based on biomarker-directed tumor risk
stratification.

While there are currently many circulating biomarker candidates in CSF, serum, and urine, all the studies
to date are hobbled by small cohort size and often mixed populations of tumor types [Table 2]. Follow-up
multi-centered studies have failed to materialize for most biomarkers, leaving the validity of virtually all of
these candidate pediatric brain tumor biomarkers in doubt. Hopefully, with continued interest, time, and
collaboration, these current research needs will be met.

DECLARATIONS
Authors’ contributions
Made substantial contributions to conception and design of the review and performed data collection:
Bookland MJ
Performed data acquisition, as well as provided administrative, technical, and material support: Kolmakova A

Availability of data and materials
Not applicable.

Financial support and sponsorship
None.

Conflicts of interest
All authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.

Consent for publication
Not applicable.

Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019.

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