As a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, Roswell Park offers the latest procedures, using state-of-the-art tools and medications, plus advancements that make treatments safer and more effective than ever before.
The main treatment for many brain tumors — surgery — now involves minimally invasive techniques and uses cutting-edge visualization techniques, advanced intraoperative neuromonitoring, and stereotactic navigation in the brain.
Your treatment for a brain tumor will be based on several factors, including:
- The type of brain cell from which the tumor grew — for example, an astrocyte or oligodendrocyte
- The tumor’s location, including assessment of the critical functions performed by that area of the brain
- Your age and medical conditions
- The grade of your tumor and the pattern of tumor spread
- Whether your tumor can be completely removed
- Molecular and genetic markers of your tumor
Roswell Park’s comprehensive care means that your neurosurgery, oncology, and radiation medicine teams work together to provide the best therapies — and the optimal sequence of these treatments — for you. Your personalized treatment plan for a brain or central nervous system tumor will likely include one or more of the following:
- Surgery to remove the tumor, while carefully protecting surrounding healthy brain tissue and preserving function.
- Gamma Knife radiosurgery, a minimally invasive, state-of-the-art, focused radiation therapy that treats brain tumors and brain metastases without incisions.
- Radiation therapy and chemotherapy, in addition to or as an alternative to, surgery
- Immunotherapy for glioblastoma
- Clinical trials to access the very latest therapies
- Specialized care for patients with tumors related to the genetic condition, neurofibromatosis.
The SurVaxM vaccine for glioblastoma
Developed here at Roswell Park, SurVaxM, is a type of immunotherapy for glioblastoma, an aggressive type of malignant brain tumor. SurVaxM has shown positive results in early-phase clinical trials and large, multicenter studies are beginning. For information about enrolling in this clinical trial, please call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355).