Brain tumours are when a group of cells clumps together into a solid mass on or near your brain. Brain tumours can be either cancerous or benign, and your treatment plan and odds of recovering will depend on what type of tumour it is. It’s possible for a brain tumour to originate directly in the brain or for cancer from another part of the body to travel to the brain and form a tumour.
Either way, it’s important to seek treatment for a brain tumour. Even benign tumours can cause serious damage or death depending on where they’re located and how big they are. There are many factors that determine the exact course of treatment for brain tumours, including whether or not the tumour is cancerous, where it’s located, how big it is, and if it’s spreading. However, regardless of these factors, here are the available treatment options for brain tumours.
Regardless of the type or size of tumour you have, surgery is the most common treatment for brain tumours. Through surgery, your doctor will attempt to remove as much of the tumour and cancer cells as possible. In many cases, they can remove every bit of the tumour and completely eradicate cancer from your body. There are many different surgical options, but they all have the same end goal.
Radiosurgery is one of the newer and slightly less invasive forms of treatment for brain tumours. During radiosurgery, you will have a series of laser beams directed at your head, and the point where they converge will get a powerful dose of radiation. The goal is to eliminate the cancer cells that comprise the tumour, thereby removing your brain tumour.
If your brain tumour is cancerous and surgery cannot remove the entire mass, you will need radiation therapy. Radiation therapy, as with radiosurgery, is where doctors use radiation to kill the cancer cells in your brain.
Radiation therapy for cancer treatment is often accompanied by chemotherapy. Chemotherapy, chemo, is available in pill form or as an IV and consists of potent medicines and chemicals that kill cancer. It can get used in conjunction with radiation therapy or as a standalone treatment and is one of the most tried and true treatments for all forms of cancer.
While chemo, radiation, and radiosurgery are effective treatments, they have many unwanted side effects.
Targeted therapy is a specialized form of treatment for all types of brain tumours. The goal of targeted therapy is to “target” specific chemicals and components of the tumour and kill them. By eliminating these specific chemicals, the tumour as a whole might die.
If one of the above treatment options is successful at removing your brain tumour, you’ll have a long road to recovery ahead of you. In many cases, people will make a full recovery if the tumour is caught, diagnosed, and removed in time. However, even in these instances, it is possible that the tumour caused some brain damage or trauma. Here are some of the treatments you might need to fully recover after having a brain tumour removed.
Brain tumours were once thought of as a death sentence when you were diagnosed with one. There simply were not any treatments that were effective at curing the condition. However, thanks to modern advancements in medical technology, it is now possible to remove or eradicate brain tumours and help you live a full and healthy life.