When it comes to treating spinal tumor, a neurosurgeon will need to know the type of spinal tumor, as well as the stage of the tumor. Vertebral column tumors, intradural-extramedullary tumors and intramedullary tumors are three common types of spinal tumors that people can be diagnosed with.
Want to understand more about a spinal tumor? According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, a spinal tumor is an abnormal mass of tissue within or surrounding the spinal cord and/or spinal column. While the symptoms will vary depending on the type of spinal tumor, the stage the tumor is in and the location of the tumor, spinal tumor symptoms tend to include pain at the tumor location, weakness in the arms or legs, numbness in the arms or legs and a change in bladder and bowel movements.
Making an appointment with your primary care physician in order to undergo certain tests can provide you with the proper diagnosis.
The list below includes treatment options for treating a spinal tumor. When a tumor is minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic, it means that it does not seem to be making any changes and is more likely to be observed than treated at the moment. This observation is done by having the patient undergo MRIs every so often in order to see if the tumor changes.
Radiation therapy for treating spinal tumors uses highly focused beams of radiation in order to disturb the growth of tumor cells, which in turn, shrinks the tumor. This treatment option is often used to treat tumors that are causing pain in patients, as radiation therapy is known to substantially reduce any spinal-related pain caused by a tumor. In order for a patient to be approved for this type of treatment, the tumor must not be compressing their spinal cord or destabilizing the spine in any way.
Chemotherapy can be used alone as a treatment or in combination with other types of spinal tumor treatments. The overall goal is to shrink the tumor before undergoing surgery in order to remove the tumor or to make sure that any cancer cells after undergoing surgery are permanently removed from the body. Chemotherapy can be given to patients orally or by injection.
Surgery is an option for treating certain kinds of spinal tumors. Surgery is also the next step when radiation therapy or chemotherapy does not work. The overall goal of performing surgery on someone who has been diagnosed with a spinal tumor is to restore and preserve their neurological functioning.
If you are in need of spinal tumor treatment and would like to understand more about the options available to you, we invite you to contact us now to make an appointment. We understand that many people receive their diagnosis by their primary care physician, and if this is the case for you, your next step is contacting us, as treating a spinal tumor requires an experienced neurosurgeon.
Request an appointment here: https://arizonaneurosurgeon.com or call Randall Porter, M.D. at (602) 603-8951 for an appointment in our Phoenix office.
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