Certain ways of giving radiation therapy can help keep radiation away from healthy tissue:
- Conformal radiation therapy uses a computer to create a 3-D picture of the tumor. The radiation beams are shaped to fit the tumor.
- Proton-beam therapy is a type of high-energy, external radiation therapy that uses streams of protons (small, positively-charged particles of matter) to kill tumor cells.
- Stereotactic radiation therapy uses a head frame attached to the skull to aim radiation beams directly at the tumor.
Radiation therapy to the brain can affect the growth and development of children younger than 3 years. For this reason, conformal radiation therapy and proton-beam therapy that limit damage to healthy brain tissue are being studied in infants and children with ependymoma.
Damage to the brain in young children treated for ependymoma is not always caused by the radiation therapy. For example, when hydrocephalus (abnormal buildup of fluid in the brain) is found at diagnosis, it is linked with lower intelligence test scores following surgery and before radiation therapy.
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the drugs enter the bloodstream and can reach cancer cells throughout the body (systemic chemotherapy). When chemotherapy is placed directly into the cerebrospinal fluid, an organ, or a body cavity such as the abdomen, the drugs mainly affect cancer cells in those areas (regional chemotherapy). The way the chemotherapy is given depends on the type and stage of the cancer being treated.
New types of treatment are being tested in clinical trials.
Information about clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.
Watchful waiting is closely monitoring a patient's condition without giving any treatment until symptoms appear or change.
Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial.
For some patients, taking part in a clinical trial may be the best treatment choice. Clinical trials are part of the cancer research process. Clinical trials are done to find out if new cancer treatments are safe and effective or better than the standard treatment.
Many of today's standard treatments for cancer are based on earlier clinical trials. Patients who take part in a clinical trial may receive the standard treatment or be among the first to receive a new treatment.
Patients who take part in clinical trials also help improve the way cancer will be treated in the future. Even when clinical trials do not lead to effective new treatments, they often answer important questions and help move research forward.
Patients can enter clinical trials before, during, or after starting their cancer treatment.