A trial looking at magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to help diagnose and treat children and young people with brain stem tumours (CNS 2004 11)

This trial looked at magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) scans to see if they could help diagnose brain stem tumours in children and young people.

A small number of children and teenagers have a brain tumour of the brain stem. The brain stem runs down from the centre of the brain and connects with the spinal cord.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans are used to help diagnose brain stem tumours in children. They are also used to see how well treatment is working. They can tell the doctors where in the brain the tumour is, and how big it is. But MRI scans don’t give the doctors all the information they would like.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) scans are similar to MRI scans, but can give extra information. Earlier trials suggested that the MRS scans may be able to give information about the type of brain tumour, how quickly it is growing and whether certain treatments will work. The doctors running this trial wanted to find out more about this.

The aim of this study was to collect information from MRS scans to increase understanding about the diagnosis and treatment of brain stem tumours in children and young people.