Diagnostics of tumours of the central nervous system has for decades been based entirely on microscopy. A con-siderable degree of diagnostic interobserver variability has been observed due to imprecise histological criteria. In the revised WHO classification for central nervous system tumours from 2016, several diagnoses are now defined by both histological and molecular features and constitute "integrated diagnoses". The development based on new technologies like next-generation sequencing and DNA methylation profiling is discussed in this review as well as its implication for daily diagnostics and the patient.