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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffThe treatment you receive for a meningioma depends on many factors, including the size of your meningioma, where it's situated and how aggressive it's believed to be. Your doctor will also take into consideration your overall health and your goals for treatment.
Wait-and-see approach
Immediate treatment isn't necessary for everyone with a meningioma. A small, slow-growing meningioma that isn't causing signs or symptoms may not require treatment.
If the plan is not to undergo treatment for your meningioma, you'll likely have brain scans periodically to evaluate your meningioma and look for signs that it's growing. Your doctor creates a personalized follow-up schedule for you. For instance, you might undergo brain scans every few months at first and then have scans done annually. If your doctor determines your meningioma is growing and needs to be treated, you have several treatment options.
Surgery
If your meningioma causes signs and symptoms or shows signs that it's growing, your doctor may recommend surgery. Surgeons work to remove the meningioma completely. But because a meningioma may occur near many delicate structures in the brain or spinal cord, it isn't always possible to remove the entire tumor. In those cases, surgeons remove as much of the meningioma as possible.
The type of treatment, if any, you need after surgery depends on several factors.
- If no visible tumor remains, then no further treatment may be necessary. However, you will have periodic follow-up scans.
- If the tumor is benign and only a small piece remained, then your doctor may recommend periodic follow-up scans only. In some cases, small, leftover tumors may be treated with a form of radiation treatment called stereotactic radiosurgery.
- If the tumor is atypical or malignant, you'll likely need radiation.
Surgery may pose risks including infection and bleeding. The specific risks of your surgery will depend on where your meningioma is located. For instance, surgery to remove a meningioma that occurs around the optic nerve can lead to vision loss. Ask your surgeon about the specific risks of your surgery.
Radiation therapy
If your meningioma can't be completely removed, your doctor may recommend radiation therapy following surgery. The goal of radiation therapy is to destroy any remaining meningioma cells and reduce the chance that your meningioma may recur. Radiation therapy uses a large machine to aim high-powered energy beams at the tumor cells.
Advances in radiation therapy increase the dose of radiation to the meningioma while reducing radiation to healthy tissue. These include fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).
Radiosurgery
Radiosurgery is a type of radiation treatment that aims several beams of powerful radiation at a precise point. Contrary to its name, radiosurgery doesn't involve scalpels or incisions. Radiosurgery typically is done in an outpatient setting in a few hours. Radiosurgery may be an option for people with meningiomas that can't be removed with conventional surgery or for meningiomas that recur despite treatment.
Fractionated radiation
For tumors too large for radiosurgery or those in an area that can't tolerate the high intensity of radiosurgery — such as near the optic nerve — a possible option is fractionated radiation. This involves delivering the radiation in small fractions over time. For example, this approach might require one treatment a day for 30 days.
Drugs
For people with meningiomas that recur or don't respond to surgery and radiation, doctors are trying different system treatments. Unfortunately, most chemotherapy has not proved valuable, but some drugs, such as hydroxyurea (Droxia, Hydrea), are sometimes used. Other drugs are being tested as well, such as those that inhibit the formation of blood vessels (angiogenesis inhibitors). Much more study is needed.
- Park JK, et al. Biology and clinical features of meningioma. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 22, 2010.
- Park JK, et al. Treatment of meningiomas. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 22, 2010.
- Minniti G, et al. Radiotherapy and radiosurgery for benign skull base meningiomas. Radiation Oncology. 2009;4:42.
- Norden AD, et al. Advances in meningioma therapy. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. 2009;9:231.
- Alexiou GA, et al. Management of meningiomas. Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery. 2010;112:177.
- Meningioma. Cancer.Net. http://www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer+Types/Meningioma. Accessed Dec. 8, 2010.
- Armstrong TS, et al. Use of complementary and alternative medical therapy by patients with primary brain tumors. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. 2008;8:264.
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