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/Home//Brain Tumors: Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is generally considered to be effective for specific pediatric tumors, lymphomas and some oligodendrogliomas. While it has been proven that chemotherapy improves overall survival in patients with the most malignant primary brain tumors, it does so in only in about 20 percent of all patients, and physicians cannot readily predict which patients will benefit before treatment. As such, some physicians choose not to use chemotherapy because of the potential side effects (lung scarring, suppression of the immune system, nausea, etc.).
Chemotherapy works by inflicting cell damage that is better repaired by normal tissue than tumor tissue. Resistance to chemotherapy might involve survival of tumor tissue that cannot respond to the drug, or the inability of the drug to pass from the bloodstream into the brain. A special barrier exists between the bloodstream and the brain tissue called the blood-brain barrier. Some investigators have tried to improve the effect of chemotherapy by disrupting this barrier, or injecting the drug into the tumor or brain. The goal of another class of drugs is not to kill the tumor cells, but rather to block further tumor growth. In some cases, growth modifiers (such as Tamoxifen) have been used to attempt to stop the growth of tumors resistant to other treatments.
In 1996, a new method of delivering chemotherapy directly into the area of the tumor was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This allows patients to receive chemotherapy without the systemic side effects. Chemotherapy-impregnated wafers can be applied by the neurosurgeon at the time of surgery. The wafers slowly secrete the drug into the tumor.
North Carolina Nursing Home Library , Prostate Cancer Library
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Martha's Helping Angels projec
