Chemotherapy Brain Cancer: Methods, Side Effects and Costs

Brain cancer is one cancer that can be suffered by men and women of all ages. There are many ways that can be done to treat brain cancer, such as surgery, radiation, to chemotherapy brain cancer. Usually, to determine what kind of treatment can be administered to brain cancer patients, the doctor will consider several factors. These factors include the location of tumors, tumor stages and general health conditions of patients.

To be able to diagnose these conditions, the doctor will perform the observation action. This observation action can be through MRI, CT scan, or CAT scan. In doing this observation, the doctor may take some time to see the results of the examination test. Based on that examination, the doctor will be able to see the symptoms experienced by patients and determine what treatment is most appropriate to be given.

Brain Cancer Treatment

There are several treatment options that can be done by brain cancer patients. Patients can do either type of treatment alone or combine several treatments at once. Of course, the type of treatment chosen should be tailored to the type of cancer, the location to the stage of brain cancer experienced. Here are some actions that can be given to brain cancer patients:

1. Lifting operation

Surgery is the most common treatment for brain tumor patients. If the tumor that occurs starts in the brain and its location is in a safe area for surgical removal, then the doctor may perform this procedure. The most common type of surgical removal of a brain tumor is craniotomy. Through this procedure, the doctor will perform head surgery and lift the lining of the skull. With the opening of the skull, the doctor can then remove the tumor. After the procedure is complete, the doctor will return the skull bone in place and sew the surgical wound.


Actually there are many choices of procedures for performing tumor removal surgeries in the brain, depending on consideration of possible outcomes by minimizing side effects on the brain. Other procedure options include Intraoperative imaging, Image-guided stereotactic surgery, Intraoperative brain mapping, and neuroendoscopy.

2. Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is a tumor treatment using X-Ray and radiation to destroy cancer cells or prevent tumors to continue to grow and spread. Radiation can be used to treat brain tumors that are difficult to remove, for example, because of its proximity to a very vital nerve.

3. Chemotherapy

The next treatment that can be done by patients with brain cancer is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses drugs to destroy cancer cells that are left after surgery. Chemotherapy is often recommended by doctors to do. However, chemotherapy is only effective for treating several types of brain tumors, such as brain tumors from the spread of other organs, recurrent brain tumors and some types of malignant tumors in the brain.

Doctors will usually schedule chemotherapy in patients after surgical removal of cancer cells. Sometimes doctors will also combine it with radiotherapy procedures.

Chemotherapy Brain Cancer

As discussed earlier, chemotherapy is an alternative treatment for brain cancer by utilizing anticancer drugs. These drugs are used to slow down to stop the activity of cancer cells that continue to divide. There are several chemotherapy functions performed in brain cancer patients, namely as the main treatment to destroy cancer cells. This usually happens if the cancer cells are in an area that is very difficult to do surgery. In addition, chemotherapy can also act as a complement of other treatments to quantify the size of the tumor or kill the remains of cancer cells after surgery.

In patients with advanced stage brain cancer, chemotherapy probably will not eliminate the total cancer cells in the patient's body. However, chemotherapy can slow the growth of cancer cells and reduce the symptoms of cancer experienced by patients.

Methods of Brain Cancer Chemotherapy

The procedure of chemotherapy treatment of brain cancer is considered more effective if given directly to the bloodstream. However, actual drugs can be given by infusion or drinking medicine. Chemotherapy of brain cancer is done based on the severity of cancer. In general, chemotherapy should be administered by patients two to four times with each process lasting for several weeks.

Whenever a patient performs chemotherapy, the doctor will observe the patient's body reaction. Patients are also advised to take a break from previous treatments to be seen with more certain effects of the chemotherapy treatments being undertaken. Here are two brain cancer chemotherapy events that can be done:

Systemic chemotherapy

With this method, the doctor will enter chemotherapy drugs directly into the bloodstream and will be flowed to all parts of the body. The location of difficulty to perform this type of chemotherapy is to find a drug that can penetrate blood vessels in the patient's brain membrane and reach tumors in the brain.

To include chemotherapy drugs, the doctor may administer medication or enter the drug by injection. For some types of brain cancer, chemotherapy drugs can be directly given to the cerebrospinal fluid. To do so, the doctor may perform a reservoir implant surgery or a container under the scalp. The container is connected to a tube that leads to the ventricle of the brain where the cerebrospinal fluid circulates.

The common chemotherapy drugs given to patients with brain cancer chemotherapy are Temozolomide. This drug is a very effective drug to treat brain cancer malignant. This drug will damage the DNA of cancer cells that can prevent cancer cells to divide.

However, if the drug Temozolomide is given in the long term with high doses, it is very possible that the patient suffered bone marrow damage. In fact, if treatment is done for 5 to 10 years, the patient may also have the risk of suffering from leukemia. So, it is advisable to be careful in undergoing this treatment. Usually, patients will undergo this treatment with 42 days concomitant phase along with radiotherapy plus 6 cycles. There is also a support phase for 4 weeks plus 6 cycles.

Temozolomide medicine should be taken when the stomach is empty, one hour before meals. The medicine is not boles powdered and must be swallowed whole in order to function optimally toward cancer cells in the brain. During this treatment, patients usually experience some side effects such as nausea, vomiting, indigestion, to weight loss.

Local Chemotherapy

With local chemotherapy, the doctor will perform a direct centralized chemotherapy procedure in the area of brain cancer located after surgical removal of tumor tissue. When the patient is undergoing surgical removal process of the tumor tissue, the doctor will place a thin device, called Glade wafer in place of a previously existing tumor tissue or near the remnants of cancer tissue that can not be removed. This tool will slowly take chemotherapy drugs for several days.

Because local chemotherapy is done as closely as possible to where the tumor is located, it may increase the drug concentration and reduce the side effects commonly experienced when performing systemic chemotherapy. Of course, this way is considered more effective than systemic chemotherapy.