Craniopharyngioma medical therapy
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Craniopharyngioma Microchapters |
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Diagnosis |
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Treatment |
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Case Studies |
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Craniopharyngioma medical therapy On the Web |
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American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Craniopharyngioma medical therapy |
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Risk calculators and risk factors for Craniopharyngioma medical therapy |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Patients with craniopharyngioma have many treatment options. The selection depends on the size, location of the tumor. The options are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of these methods.
Medical Therapy
For treatment purposes, patients are grouped as having newly diagnosed or recurrent disease.[1]
Newly diagnosed craniopharyngioma
There is no consensus on the optimal treatment for newly diagnosed craniopharyngioma, in part because of the lack of prospective randomized trials that compare the different treatment options. Treatment is individualized on the basis of factors that include the following:
- Tumor size
- Tumor location
- Extension of the tumor.
- Potential short-term and long-term toxicity.
- Extension of the tumor.
- Tumor location
Treatment options for newly diagnosed childhood craniopharyngioma include the following:
Radical surgery with or without radiation therapy. Subtotal resection with radiation therapy. Primary cyst drainage with or without radiation therapy.
Recurrent craniopharyngioma
- Surgery
- Radiation therapy, including radiosurgery
- Intracavitary instillation of radioactive P-32, bleomycin, or interferon-alpha, for those with cystic recurrences
- Systemic interferon
References
- ↑ Rx of Craniopharyngioma. Cancer gov. http://www.cancer.gov/types/brain/hp/child-cranio-treatment-pdq#link/_40_toc