Genetic Study of Newly Diagnosed Central Nervous System Tumors in Young Children

OBJECTIVES: * Identify known genes that have significantly different levels of expression, using microarray gene chip analysis, in infants with newly diagnosed metastatic vs non-metastatic embryonal central nervous system tumors. * Determine the protein expression of genes identified by microarray analysis that are involved in cellular functions that regulate angiogenesis, invasion, or metastasis in this patient population. * Determine the quantity of gene expression of the confirmed translationally expressed genes using semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Tumor samples are analyzed using microarray gene chip analysis. Differentially expressed genes are evaluated for protein expression by standard immunohistochemistry and/or Western blot analysis, and gene expression is further quantified by semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 80-100 patients (20-25 with metastatic disease and 60-75 with non-metastatic disease) will be accrued for this study within 4-5 years.