![]() ![]() Side effects may include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, increased risk of infection and hair loss. Your doctor can determine whether chemotherapy might be beneficial for you, either alone or in combination with radiation therapy. A standard treatment for many types of cancer, chemotherapy uses medications to destroy cancer cells or stop them from growing. Modifications may range from simply changing the dosage of radiation to using sophisticated techniques such as 3-D conformal radiation therapy.Ĭhemotherapy. Sometimes, your radiation therapy regimen may be adjusted to help minimize the amount of healthy tissue that's damaged and to make the treatment more effective. Medications may help ease some of the side effects of radiation, such as nausea and vomiting. This may be used to eliminate the remnants of tumors that remain after surgery, to treat inoperable tumors or to treat those tumors where surgery is too risky. You may experience a temporary loss of sensation or other complications, including bleeding and damage to nerve tissue. Recovery from spinal surgery may take weeks or longer, depending on the procedure. When the tumor can't be removed completely, surgery may be followed by radiation therapy or chemotherapy or both. In some instances, very high-frequency sound waves might be used during surgery to break up tumors and remove the fragments.īut even with the latest technological advances in surgery, not all tumors can be totally removed. The high-powered microscopes used in microsurgery make it easier to distinguish tumor from healthy tissue.ĭoctors also can monitor the function of the spinal cord and other important nerves during surgery, thus minimizing the chance of injuring them. Newer techniques and instruments allow neurosurgeons to reach tumors that were once considered inaccessible. Surgery.This is often the treatment of choice for tumors that can be removed with an acceptable risk of spinal cord or nerve injury damage. If small tumors aren't growing or pressing on surrounding tissues, watching them carefully may be all that's needed.ĭuring observation, your doctor will likely recommend periodic CT or MRI scans at an appropriate interval to monitor the tumor. Some spinal tumors may be discovered before they cause symptoms - often when you're being evaluated for another condition. Treatment options for most spinal tumors include: ![]() Using microsurgical techniques, a tumor is gently teased out of the spinal cord in the cervical spine.
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