Brain Tumor Treatments

The three most commonly used treatments are surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Doctors also may prescribe steroids to reduce the swelling inside the CNS.

The best brain tumor treatments are those that are going to remove as much of the brain tumor as possible. This often starts with brain tumor surgery. By pulling out as much of the tumor as possible, all if possible, doctors can remove many of the cancerous cells invading the area. Then, they will need to kill off any remaining cancerous cells and use other methods to keep them from multiplying. To accomplish this, brain tumor chemotherapy is used. It is nearly always necessary for doctors to pair chemotherapy alongside brain surgery because chemotherapy can not work alone to kill the cancerous cells. More so, surgery can not remove every cell that could be lurking there. Therefore, both methods are necessary.

	Tumors of neuroepithelial tissue	WHO grade
	Astrocytic tumors
	Subependymal giant cell astrocytoma	Grade I
	Pilocytic astrocytoma	Grade I
	Pilomyxoid astrocytoma	Grade II
	Diffuse astrocytoma	Grade II
	Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma	Grade II
	Anaplastic astrocytoma	Grade III
	Glioblastoma	Grade IV
	Giant cell glioblastoma	Grade IV
	Gliosarcoma	Grade IV

	Oligodendroglial tumors
	Oligodendroglioma	Grade II
	Anaplastic oligodendroglioma	Grade III

	Oligoastrocytic tumors
	Oligoastrocytoma	Grade II
	Anaplastic oligoastrocytoma	Grade III

	Ependymal tumors
	Subependymoma	Grade I
	Myxopapillary ependymoma	Grade I
	Ependymoma	Grade II
	Anaplastic ependymoma	Grade III

	Choroid plexus tumors
	Choroid plexus papilloma	Grade I
	Atypical choroid plexus papilloma	Grade II
	Choroid plexus carcinoma	Grade III

	Other neuroepithelial tumors
	Angiocentric glioma	Grade I
	Chordoid glioma of the third ventricle	Grade II

	Neuronal and mixed neuronal–glial tumors
	Gangliocytoma	Grade I
	Ganglioglioma	Grade I
	Anaplastic ganglioglioma	Grade III
	Desmoplastic infantile astrocytoma and ganglioglioma	Grade I
	Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor	Grade I
	Central neurocytoma and extraventricular neurocytoma	Grade II
	Cerebellar liponeurocytoma	Grade I
	Paraganglioma of the spinal cord	Grade I
	Papillary glioneuronal tumor	Grade I
	Rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor of the fourth ventricle	Grade I

	Pineal tumors
	Pineocytoma	Grade I
	Pineal parenchymal tumor of intermediate differentiation	Grade II
	Pineoblastoma	Grade IV
	Papillary tumor of the pineal region	Grade II or III

	Embryonal tumors
	Medulloblastoma	Grade IV
	CNS primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET)	Grade IV
	Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor	Grade IV

	Tumors of the cranial and paraspinal nerves
	Schwannoma	Grade I
	Neurofibroma	Grade I
	Perineurioma	Grade I
	Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST)	Grade II, III or IV

Meningeal tumors
Meningioma	Grade I
Atypical meningioma	Grade II
Anaplastic meningioma	Grade III
Hemangiopericytoma	Grade II
Anaplastic hemangiopericytoma	Grade III
Hemangioblastoma	Grade I

Tumors of the sellar region
Craniopharyngioma	Grade I
Granular cell tumor of the neurohypophysis	Grade I
Pituicytoma	Grade I
Spindle cell oncocytoma of the adenohypophysis	Grade I

References: The 2007 WHO classification of tumours of the central nervous system. Louis DN, Ohgaki H, Wiestler OD, Cavenee WK, Burger PC, Jouvet A, Scheithauer BW, Kleihues P. Acta Neuropathol. 2007 Aug;114(2):97-109. Epub 2007 Jul 6. Review. Erratum in: Acta Neuropathol. 2007 Nov;114(5):547.