What are the treatments for a brain tumor?
What are the treatments for a brain tumor?
Brain tumor treatment depends on the tumor’s location, size and type. Doctors often use a combination of therapies to treat a tumor.
Your treatment options might include:
- Surgery: When possible, surgeons remove the tumor. They work very carefully, sometimes doing surgery when you are awake, to minimize damage to functional areas of the brain.
- Radiation therapy: High doses of X-rays destroy brain tumor cells or shrink the tumor. Some people have radiation before surgery to shrink a brain tumor so that the surgeon can remove less tissue.
- Chemotherapy: Anti-cancer drugs kill cancer cells in the brain and throughout the body. You might receive chemotherapy through an injection into a vein or take as a pill. In some cases, doctors use chemotherapy before surgery to make the tumor smaller. Your doctor may recommend chemotherapy after surgery to kill any cancer cells left behind or to prevent remaining tumor cells from growing.
- Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy, also called biological therapy, is a type of treatment that uses your body's own immune system to fight cancer. The therapy mainly consists of stimulating the immune system to help it do its job more effectively.
- Targeted therapy: Drugs target specific features in cancer cells without harming healthy cells. Your doctor may recommend targeted therapy if you have trouble tolerating the side effects of chemotherapy, such as fatigue and nausea.
- Laser thermal ablation: This treatment uses lasers to heat and destroy tumor cells.
- Watchful waiting/active surveillance: A doctor closely monitors the tumor for signs of growth with regular testing, but does not take any other action.