You or your loved one has a metastatic brain tumor, and you are looking for answers. This is encouraging because self-education is a powerful way to enhance your understanding of your condition and make informed decisions about your treatment.
The simple answer to the question, “What is the best option for metastatic brain tumor treatment?” — it depends. There is no “one size fits all” approach. It depends on you, your tumor, your overall health and your personal preferences. However, you can expect your treatment to include a combination of either surgery, traditional radiotherapy or Gamma Knife radiosurgery. The key is to find a doctor who can assess your condition on a patient-by-patient basis and recommend treatment based on your needs. Together, you can develop a plan to treat your tumor best that suits you.
Metastatic Brain Tumor Treatment Options
Metastatic brain tumors are cancers that have spread to another site in the body, and that site can vary depending on each case, making it a very unique and individual condition.
There are three main treatment options available for patients with metastatic brain tumors: surgery, traditional radiation or stereotactic radiosurgery (one specific form is Gamma knife radiosurgery). Your doctor may recommend one approach or a combination of multiple, depending upon the size, location and nature of your tumor.
Surgery
One reason your surgeon may recommend surgery is to perform a biopsy to learn more about your tumor. A biopsy is a sample of tissue that is sent to a specialist that will examine the sample and report the details to the ordering doctor. This can be useful if you do not have a previous diagnosis and your doctor is unsure of the location from which your metastatic brain tumor has spread.
Sometimes your doctor will recommend surgery because your tumor is large and cannot be treated effectively with radiation alone. It is vital to remove all of the cancer cells, so surgical removal will often be followed up with radiation to catch any remaining cancer cells. This is important because any remaining cells can regrow, leading to the need for retreatment.
Another reason your doctor may suggest a surgical approach is because your tumor is easily accessible and the procedure would not pose a significant risk. This, too, may be followed by radiation treatment to ensure that the tumor cells are completely eradicated.
It’s important to remember that the goal of surgery is always to make the situation better. If surgery ever poses a significant risk or will lead to other potential problems, your doctor will never recommend it.
Traditional Radiation Therapy
Known as “whole-brain radiation therapy,” traditional radiation therapy has long been the gold standard treatment for brain tumors because of its effectiveness. It typically involves multiple sessions of relatively low-dose radiation to the entire brain, which will destroy tumor cells. Though traditional radiation therapy may be used alone, it is also often used in combination with surgery to remove any remaining tumor cells.
However, because whole-brain radiation therapy treats the entire brain, rather than a focused area (as in Gamma Knife radiosurgery), there are increased side effects that result from the damage to normal tissue. These can include:
- Physical side effects: scalp irritation, hair loss, extreme fatigue, vomiting, hearing loss
- Cognitive side effects: headaches, nausea, trouble with memory and/or speech, seizures
These side effects are rarely seen in Gamma Knife radiosurgery, which is one reason some practices prefer it for metastatic brain tumor treatment.
Gamma Knife Radiosurgery
Gamma Knife radiosurgery is not what you would typically think of when you read “surgery.” There are no incisions or sutures. Instead, the doctor uses highly focused beams of radiation to treat just the tumor cells while sparing most of the healthy surrounding tissue. The surgeon can direct the beams based on the shape of the tumor, delivering a single dose of radiation specifically where it is needed.
Your doctor may recommend Gamma Knife radiosurgery alone or in combination with other techniques for your metastatic brain tumor treatment. Gamma Knife can be useful for tumors that are difficult to reach via surgery and/or would be a high-risk procedure, or in patients who are not candidates for traditional surgery. Gamma Knife is also an effective way to treat small lesions where the more focused area can be easily targeted. However, your doctor may need to perform a biopsy first to understand the nature of your tumor.
Because of the focused beam used in Gamma Knife radiosurgery, there are fewer side effects and risks as compared to whole-brain radiation therapy. This noninvasive, effective therapy has become the treatment of choice for many patients by the doctors at Neurosurgeons of New Jersey, as well as other practices that provide metastatic brain tumor treatment.
Making the Decision
It is important to understand that you have options when it comes to your metastatic brain tumor treatment. Unfortunately, you may find if you visit a specialist, they will only recommend the treatment they are able to offer you: an oncologist may only recommend radiation, while a surgeon may only recommend surgery.
However, the doctors at Neurosurgeons of New Jersey take care to treat each patient as an individual and approach each case with an unbiased manner. The treatment that is recommended for you may not be the treatment that is recommended for the patient next to you in the waiting room, and that is the foundation of the practice’s patient-centric approach.
