Congenital intracranial tumors

Tumors that are diagnosed already at birth or during the first or second week of life are called congenital tumors. They represent a special challenge to pediatric oncologists and to surgeons, and are relatively rare. From 1956 to August 1983 in the Pediatric Department of the University Hospital of Mainz, 1.027 children with tumors were observed and treated, 16 of them with congenital tumors. Among 479 tumor patients from 1956 to 1972 there was only one child with a congenital tumor; but from 1973 to 1983 there were 15 cases. Possibly, the absolute number of congenital tumors is increasing!