Brain tumors are a major health problem globally, with 90,000 people being diagnosed with primary brain tumors every year. Understanding various chemotherapy options offers patients and their relatives knowledge and hope in the midst of such uncertainty.
This is particularly significant when we think about brain tumor treatment in India, as advancements in medical science have made a difference and greatly enhanced the prognosis of many patients. This blog will be about chemotherapy options for brain tumor patients and explain how these treatments work, their effectiveness, and some of the latest advances in chemotherapy.
Understanding brain tumors
Brain tumors refer to the abnormal cells growing within the brain or the central spinal canal. The type and location of the brain tumor determine the degree of neurological impairment, which in turn dictates the different treatment options.
Chemotherapy, which is one form of cancer treatment that relies on the usage of drugs to eliminate cancer cells, is an essential component of the management of brain tumors. The efficacy of chemotherapy is based on the type of tumor, its location, and the patient’s general health status.
Why do we need chemo for brain tumor?
Chemotherapy is essential because brain tumors often appear in hard-to-reach areas or next to major arteries, where surgery risks are high. Unlike other cells, cancer cells multiply and divide much quicker.
Chemotherapy targets these fast-dividing cells, aiming to shrink tumors, relieve symptoms, and extend life. Special chemo types are used that can pass through the blood-brain barrier, providing a viable option to destroy tumors even when surgery is not possible.
Chemotherapy options for brain tumor patients
Chemotherapy can be used as a single treatment, but it is mostly applied together with surgery and radiotherapy. The objective is to selectively hit cancer cells while sparing healthy brain tissues. As for the types of chemotherapy, they can be divided into systemic chemotherapy and regional chemotherapy.
- Systemic chemotherapy
Systemic chemotherapy means injecting medications, which get distributed all over the body. It can be given orally or intravenously and is proven to be effective in the treatment of tumors that go beyond the brain.
However, it is inefficient for primary brain tumors due to the blood-brain barrier, a layer of protection around the brain that limits most of the chemotherapy drugs entering the brain.
- Regional chemotherapy
Unlike systemic chemotherapy, regional chemotherapy delivers the drugs directly to the tumor. This method avoids the blood-brain barrier, therefore the concentration of drug in the tumor is significantly higher. Options include:
- Intra-arterial chemotherapy: The drug is infused directly into the artery that feeds the tumor.
- Intrathecal chemotherapy: This involves injecting chemotherapy drugs into the cerebrospinal fluid.
- Convection-enhanced delivery (CED): A small pump delivers the chemotherapy drugs to the tumor tissue.
Advances in chemotherapy for brain tumors
Global progress in the field of chemotherapy has greatly benefited from affordable neuro surgery treatment cost India. Targeted therapy, a kind of chemotherapy that targets a particular gene, protein, or the tumor microenvironment involved in cancer development, has great potential for the treatment of specific brain tumor types. Furthermore, immunotherapy, which is based on the body’s own immune system to combat cancer, is another possible treatment choice.
The most prominent improvement is the use of Temozolomide, a drug that has been shown to be effective in curing glioblastoma multiforme, the most malignant type of brain tumor. Temozolomide has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier thus making it one of the few chemotherapy drugs with efficacy against primary brain tumors.
Conclusion
Chemotherapy continues to be one of the most widely used methods in brain tumor management and offers hope to many patients diagnosed with this disease. Ortil Healthcare provides you with the opportunity to select from the most appropriate and cost-effective choices for the best brain tumor treatment in India. Not only that, they will also help you to arrange your medical trip, choose hospitals, medical visa requirements, accommodation, and follow-up treatments as well.
