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Is A Brain Tumor Treated With Surgery Or Radiation Therapy?
I have a Co-worker and very dear friend he is 62 yrs old in somewhat good shape he did say he was about 40 lbs overweight last week he was stating that he was having a hard time typing , we work on laptops a lot of the day , he than told me he was crying uncontrollably we haven t noticed any other symtoms that would strike a us to think he has a Tumor but sure enough the Dr s have just told him he does I was reading up on tumors in the Brain he didn t have any Vomiting , or Vision issues but the Motor skills to type I would think there would be some concentration problems . and This may be where we will just have to sit and wait for the Dr s to tell us I wanted to know what the procedure is that they do to find out which type of Tumor he has and would they use Surgery to remove or try to shrink it with Radiation ??
Wed, 23 May 2018
Hello and Welcome to ‘Ask A Doctor’ service. I have reviewed your query and here is my advice.
Surgical resection of brain tumors depend on a lot of variables such as location of the tumor, size and whether it is causing increased pressure on the brain to a point of danger, as well as if he may have any other tumors in the body..especially if the brain tumor may have come from another place such as the lungs, stomach, or colon. In short, I would need much more information than is currently available to say whether surgery were likely or not. However, radiation is a bit easier to answer (though it still requires knowing what the tumor is made of). Typically, radiation therapy is used when trying to SHRINK tumors in size due to their causing increased problems of pressure in the brain or when there may be so many of them in the brain that excising using surgery is simply impractical. However, the main deciding factor to whether radiation is used on brain tumor is WHAT'S THE PATHOLOGY say the tumor is followed by the questions....Is this tumor likely to grow rapidly or slowly? If rapidly then, radiation is likely going to help shrink the tumor size considerably.....If the tumor is a slow growing variety then, radiation therapy is of little value and may cause harm just because you'd be irradiating good brain tissue for nothing.....and that's not good. All the best to your coworker.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Surgical resection of brain tumors depend on a lot of variables such as location of the tumor, size and whether it is causing increased pressure on the brain to a point of danger, as well as if he may have any other tumors in the body..especially if the brain tumor may have come from another place such as the lungs, stomach, or colon. In short, I would need much more information than is currently available to say whether surgery were likely or not. However, radiation is a bit easier to answer (though it still requires knowing what the tumor is made of). Typically, radiation therapy is used when trying to SHRINK tumors in size due to their causing increased problems of pressure in the brain or when there may be so many of them in the brain that excising using surgery is simply impractical. However, the main deciding factor to whether radiation is used on brain tumor is WHAT'S THE PATHOLOGY say the tumor is followed by the questions....Is this tumor likely to grow rapidly or slowly? If rapidly then, radiation is likely going to help shrink the tumor size considerably.....If the tumor is a slow growing variety then, radiation therapy is of little value and may cause harm just because you'd be irradiating good brain tissue for nothing.....and that's not good. All the best to your coworker.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
I find this answer helpful
Hello and Welcome to ‘Ask A Doctor’ service. I have reviewed your query and here is my advice.
Well, in your case, it must be asymptomatic silent tumor. Many of low grade gliomas may behave in same way without any symptoms. While MRI brain contrast do indicate the type of tumor and it's behavior, definitive diagnosis is by biopsy. Your friend firstly need an MRI brain with contrast and if there is any suspicious lesion then biopsy. Biopsy would then determine further course according to the type of tumor. In high grade and recurrent tumors drugs (chemotherapy) and radiation are given and they slow down their progress but low grade tumors are treated by excision only in most of the cases.Hope my answer would b helpful to you.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Well, in your case, it must be asymptomatic silent tumor. Many of low grade gliomas may behave in same way without any symptoms. While MRI brain contrast do indicate the type of tumor and it's behavior, definitive diagnosis is by biopsy. Your friend firstly need an MRI brain with contrast and if there is any suspicious lesion then biopsy. Biopsy would then determine further course according to the type of tumor. In high grade and recurrent tumors drugs (chemotherapy) and radiation are given and they slow down their progress but low grade tumors are treated by excision only in most of the cases.Hope my answer would b helpful to you.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
I find this answer helpful
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