Brain Tumor Treatment in Israel

A brain tumor is a cancerous or a non-cancerous growth of cells in the brain. This growth of abnormal cells can take place in any part of the brain or it can happen in any other body party and spread to the brain.

It is a fairly common condition that affects millions of people around the world. An undiagnosed brain tumour can prove fatal and therefore, it is necessary to undergo specific tests and initiate treatment as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed.

The symptoms of a brain tumour can be confused with some other medical condition, especially migraine. Increasingly strong headache and blurred vision are the two most common symptoms of a brain tumour. People with this condition can also experience seizures, confusion, nausea, vertigo, impaired voice, and loss of balance.

Treatment for a brain tumour depends on several factors. The type, size, and the location of a tumour, in addition to the overall health of the patient and his or her age, are some of the considerations made by the doctor while preparing a brain tumour treatment plan.

Different treatment modalities can be used to treat brain tumour patients and surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are among them. Usually, a combination of treatment modalities is used to conduct brain tumour treatment.

The procedural details depend on the type of treatment that the patient is recommended to undergo. A surgery is almost always recommended for brain tumor patients. TO remove the tumor in the brain, the surgeon first opens the skull, a procedure known as a craniotomy.

During the surgery, the aim of the surgeon is to remove as much tumor as possible without affecting the nearby tissues. Partial tumor removal is carried out in some patients to reduce the size of the tumor to make sure that it can be treated with radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

The tumor is left as in some patients. In such cases, the doctor only removes a sample of the tumor tissue for a biopsy. The biopsy in the case of brain tumor patients is mostly conducted with the help of a needle. During this procedure, the tissue sample is looked under a microscope to identify the type of cells that it has. Accordingly, the doctors advise a course of treatment.

Radiation therapy is another treatment modality used in the case of patients with brain cancer and tumors that cannot be removed through surgery. Additionally, it is also used to destroy tumor cells that could not be removed during surgery.

External radiation therapy, internal radiation therapy, and GammaKnife or stereotactic radiosurgery are some of the forms of radiation therapies commonly used to treatment brain tumor patients.

Chemotherapy is the third treatment used for a brain tumor. It involves the use of a specific combination of drugs to kills cancer cells. These drugs are mostly administered intravenously and the patients are not required to stay in the hospital for this procedure. Chemotherapy is administered in cycles.

After a surgery for brain tumor removal, the patients need extra time to heal fully. Additionally, it may take a few months for the patient to return back to normal energy levels. The total time taken by the patient to recover, however, depends on several factors. This may include the following:

• The duration of treatment
• The number and type of treatment modalities used
• Patient’s age and overall health
• The exact location of the tumor in the brain
• The area of the brain affected by tumor
• The exact length of hospital stay after the surgery may vary among patients. However, a five to six-day stay is the most common among patients. The patients are carefully monitored during this period. A team of occupational, physical, and speech therapists helps with the rehabilitation of the patient during the recovery phase.