My friend's MRI report with & without contrast refers to areas and components of "enhancement", .. does the word enhancement or enhancing translate to cancerous in context with a pilocytic astrocytoma?

Not necessarily. For mine it meant my veins are abnormally large, which raised other questions however they found nothing. Good luck to your friend, I wish them well

It means something stands out ever so slightly. Could be scar tissue, benign changes or even a different angle to the MRI.

It you have had pilocytic astrocytoma they are going to be super careful.There's always something enhanced on mine.

Your friend should be asking their doctor.

Areas of enhancements are areas where they looked closer by enhancing or making the mri closer or better so they could see that specific area better and thus determine what might be in that area. So the information you're looking for would be what those 'enhancements' revealed.