Survival Rates for Brain Tumors in Children

Survival rates are a way to measure how many people survive a certain type of cancer over time. They cannot tell you exactly what will happen with any one person, but they may help give you a better understanding of how likely it is that treatment will be successful.

What is a 5-year survival rate?

The 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of people who live at least 5 years after their cancer is diagnosed. Of course, people may live much longer than 5 years (and many are cured).

To get 5-year survival rates, doctors must look at people who were treated at least 5 years ago. Changes in treatment since then may result in a better outlook for people diagnosed with a certain type of brain tumor today.

Your doctor can tell you how the survival rates below might apply to your  situation.

Survival rates for more common brain tumors in children and young adults

The numbers below come from the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) and are based on children and young adults treated between 2015 and 2021. There are some important points to note about these numbers:

• These numbers are for some of the more common types of tumors. Numbers are not readily available for all types of tumors that occur in children, often because they are rare or hard to classify.
• In some cases, the numbers include a range of different tumors that can have different outlooks.

Type of Tumor	5-Year Survival Rate
	0-14 years	15-39 years
Pilocytic astrocytoma	97%	95%
Diffuse astrocytoma	82%	79%
Anaplastic astrocytoma	26%	65%
Glioblastoma	20%	29%
Oligodendroglioma	94%	93%
Ependymal tumors	82%	95%
Medulloblastoma	74%	81%
Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor	36%	N/A
Germ cell tumors	88%	90%
Meningioma	95%	97%

Survival rates are only estimates. Talk to your doctor to better understand your specific situation and how these numbers may apply to you.