Gliomas
If you have any of these symptoms, they may not necessarily be caused by a neuro-oncology condition, but it’s important to get them evaluated by your doctor so the cause can be found and treated early. If brain cancer is the cause, our care team at HonorHealth Cancer Care are committed to offering personalized, in-depth and compassionate care.
Treatment options for gliomas
Treatment options for gliomas depends on several factors, our cancer care team and surgeons will take into consideration your lifestyle and environment to create a treatment plan that you are comfortable with.
Treatment options include:
- Surgery: This involves removing as much of the tumor as possible, without harming healthy tissue.
- Stereotactic radiation: A type of external radiation therapy that uses special equipment to position the patient and precisely deliver radiation to a tumor. The total dose of radiation is divided into several smaller doses given over several days. Stereotactic radiation therapy is used to treat brain tumors and other brain disorders.
- Stereotactic radiosurgery: Treats brain disorders with precise delivery of a single, high dose of radiation in a one-day session. Through the use of three-dimensional, computer-aided planning and a high degree of immobilization of the patient, the treatment can minimize the amount of radiation that passes through healthy brain tissue. Focused radiation beams are delivered to a specific area of the brain to treat abnormalities, tumors or functional disorders.
- Brachytherapy: Requires naturally absorbing collagen tiles to be surgically placed inside the skull as close to the tumor as possible.
- Chemotherapy: A general term for any treatment involving the use of drugs to stop cancer cells from growing. Chemotherapy is designed to kill cancer cells and can be administered through a vein, injected into a body cavity or taken orally in the form of a pill, depending on which drug is used. Chemotherapy works by destroying cancer cells. The downside is that it does not differentiate between a cancer cell and some healthy cells. In turn, this treatment affects not only the fast-growing cancer cells but also other fast-growing cells in your body, including hair and blood cells.
- Intrathecal chemotherapy: A thin tube, called a catheter, is surgically placed under your scalp. Through the catheter, medicines, such as chemotherapy or antibiotics, are delivered directly to the brain and spinal cord.
- Clinical trials: Through a clinical trial, you may have access to groundbreaking treatment options before they’re approved by the FDA and made available to the public. The HonorHealth Research Institute conducts a variety of trials for various health conditions.
Genetic counseling
Family history or genetics can put you at risk for developing certain disorders or diseases, such as cancer. People with family members who have gliomas might be more likely to develop this disease. It’s important to consider taking an important and potentially lifesaving step – genetic counseling.