Heath Disparities of Pediatric Brain Tumors

Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer related death in children. While significant advances have been made in molecularly subgrouping tumors of same pathological diagnosis, little is known about the differences of tumor biology and the clinical outcomes among racial/ethnic populations. By direct implantation of pediatric brain tumor tissues into the matching locations in the brains of SCID mice, we have noticed remarkable differences of tumor take rate between children with different racial/ethnic groups. A recent CDC report also demonstrated an elevated rate of cancer diagnoses in while (184.4/million) when compared with black (133.3/million), American indian/Alasks native (146.7/million) and Asian/pacific islander (144.6/million). All these combined led us to hypothesis that that the overall responses to treatment may also be affected by the racial/ethnic differences in children with brain tumor.