How To Treat Brain Tumor

Brain tumor is a leading cause of tumor death, which has poorer survival rates than breast cancer, benign or malignant alike.

A traditional Chinese drink has been proved to be an effective treatment in inhibiting brain tumor growth. For thousands of years, two plant fruits, lycium barbarum and ligustrum lucidum, have been taken as drinks in many Chinese' daily lives. Chinese clinical studies have proved the ingredients in these two plant fruits are effective in inhibiting brain tumor growth.

The most common primary brain tumors are gliomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, vestibular schwannomas, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (medulloblastomas). The term glioma includes astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, ependymomas, and choroid plexus papillomas.

Adult brain tumor is diagnosed and removed in surgery. If a brain tumor is suspected, a biopsy is done by removing part of the skull and using a needle to remove a sample of the brain tissue. A pathologist views the tissue under a microscope to look for cancer cells. If cancer cells are found, the doctor will remove as much tumor as safely possible during the same surgery. An MRI may then be done to determine if any cancer cells remain after surgery. Tests are also done to find out the grade of the tumor.

Brain tumors typically are categorized as either primary or secondary. Primary brain tumors originate in your brain and can be noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Secondary brain tumors result from cancer that began elsewhere and spread to your brain. Primary brain tumors are less common than secondary brain tumors.

Surgery is the mainstay of brain tumor treatment. It involves removing as much of the tumor as possible while trying to minimize damage to healthy tissue. Some tumors can be removed completely, while others can be removed only partially or not all. If a tumor is slow-growing, doctors may not operate immediately, but take a watch-and-wait approach.

The first approach employs natural proteins, called interferons, which are created by the immune system and are toxic to many different types of tumor cells. Lymphocytes, are cells that are able to fight cancer and can be grown in a laboratory and injected directly back into the tumor, to increase the bodys immune response. Lastly, a tumor vaccine can be created from brain tumor cells that are removed, modified and then transferred back to the patient. A tumor vaccine can create a strong immune system response against the tumor.

Chemotherapy, the use of medications to treat cancer, has played a major role in cancer treatment for half a century. Years of testing and research have proven chemotherapy to be effective and capable of prolonging life, reducing cancer-related symptoms such as pain, and in some instances curing cancer. Depending on a patient's situation, chemotherapy may be the only treatment given, or it may be used in combination with surgery, radiation therapy or other therapies.

Brain tumors can arise either from the brain itself (primary brain tumors: astrocytoma, glioblastoma, oligodendroglioma, ependymoma), or its coverings (meningiomas, pituitary tumors, pineal tumors), or the nerves at the base of the brain (acoustic neuromas, schwannomas), or even from outside the brain (metastatic brain tumors) . This last case occurs when cancer cells travel through the bloodstream and lodge in the brain.

By: Peter Hutch