Treatment For Brain CancerA brain cancer is a tumor, but not all brain tumors symptoms are cancer. Those that are not cancerous are called benign, and these may appear in the brain. If these benign tumors aren’t causing brain function problems and aren’t growing, treatment is not necessary.

For tumors in the brain that are not benign, but are malignant, and so, growing, brain cancer treatment is required, that is, if the cancer is not beyond treatment, or in a part of the brain that is inaccessible and not receptive to non-invasive treatments.

Brain Cancer Treatment Options Available

Brain cancer is determined by an MRI scan and a biopsy. If the tumor is determined to be malignant, treatment, if possible, will be undertaken. Brain cancer treatment might be surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy.

1) Brain Cancer Surgery Treatment

Surgery as a brain cancer treatment, is the first choice of treatment. A surgeon will remove resection – the tumor. This is no easy task, because the brain is a most delicate organ with no redundancies. Every part of the brain is required. You cannot take some healthy part of the brain in the resection process without affecting a brain function. The location of the tumor determines the difficulty. If the brain has to suffer some damage for the surgeon to get to the tumor, some brain function will be adversely affected.

Locating and navigating to the tumor is the trick of the brain cancer treatment. In past years, there wasn’t much success, but with recent improvements in electronic imaging and computer aided brain navigation, success in getting to the tumor and removing it, with little or no damage to the brain, is greater.

Brain surgery still remains a risky brain cancer treatment, and it rarely constitutes a cure. It does go far to relieve brain cancer symptoms and improves the quality of the stricken patient’s life.

2) Radiation Treatment For Brain Cancer

Radiation as a brain cancer treatment has also improved in recent years, thanks to advanced computer technology. It is an excellent supplement to surgery, especially if the tumor reappears after removal. The side-effects, such as loss of memory, loss of hair, body weakness, makes it a secondary treatment rather than primary, as surgery is. Some argue that it may not be highly effective in increasing survival and should not be the primary treatment over surgery.

When surgery is not feasible, as it is not for tumors that span both hemispheres of the brain, radiation therapy is the next best option. Radiation is applied in beams of radiation, with as many as 200 beams aimed at the tumor. Advanced imaging aids in aiming and navigating to the tumor. Precision is everything in radiation treatment, but again, computer and imaging technology has radically increased precision, so that the treatment is having higher degrees of success than in years past.

3) Chemotherapy Treatment For Brain Cancer

Chemotherapy, the last brain cancer treatment discussed here, has not been, until recently, a feasible option. This is because there is a physical barrier between the brain and its blood supply. With the invention of a drug named Temodar(R), an orally administered pill, the status of chemotherapy for brain cancer has changed. TemodarR) is able to get through the brain-blood barrier, to the tumor, where it then breaks down the tumor’s DNA, killing off the tumor. Its side effects are tolerable: nausea, headaches, and bodily weakness. This drug is effective against highly aggressive tumors and is showing a promising success rate.

4) Gliadel Wafer Treatment For Brain Cancer

The only other drug effective as a brain cancer treatment is called the gliadel wafer. It kills cancerous cells, but it must be inserted in the brain after the tumor has been removed by surgery. It melts over several weeks, and washes over those cancer cells the surgery did not evict.

New chemotherapy techniques are being adopted to introduce drugs directly into the brain using a catheter. The drug, Avastin(R), is also showing promise as a brain cancer treatment. It prevents blood vessels from growing into the tumor and is not hampered by the brain-blood barrier.

These three types of treatments may be used alone or in combination, the latter being the most typical. Experimentation is underway on other treatments, but, because brain cancer is relatively rare, funding is sparse.

Brain cancer is a frightening prospect, but man is up to the task of defeating this most difficult of cancers to treat. Brain cancer treatments can curtail and even cure the stricken, and improve the quality of life. That we have any treatment at all is a testimony to the greatness of science and the indomitable spirit of man