Tumours of central nervous system (CNS) represent the second most frequent malignancy in children under 15 years of age but are the commonest cause of death. The authors present the epidemiologic and histopathologic analysis of 623 primary tumours of CNS occurring during the period 1990 to 1996 in paediatric patients. In this period 3318 biopsies of CNS were analyzed. In this total were included 623 paediatric tumours (18.7%). The age of patients ranged from 5 months to 15 years, 325 tumours occurred in males and 298 in females. The majority affected the posterior fossa. The majority of paediatric neoplasias were of glial origin (n=277). The most frequent tumours were: astrocytoma (27.9%), medulloblastoma (9.95%), craniopharyngioma (5.93%), ependymoma (4.97%) and glioblastoma (3.37%).
brain tumours; infancy; central nervous system; immunohistochemistry