What is Brain Tumour Surgery?
A specialised field of neurosurgery, brain tumour surgery manages abnormal growths within the brain or its surrounding structures surgically. The brain, with it being the body's control centre, requires an extraordinary level of precision. Any mass within its limited space, whether cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign), can raise pressure, disrupt vital function and sometimes, even become life-threatening.
Removing a tumour is the primary goal of surgery but doing so while ensuring the delicate networks that allow a person to move, speak, think and remember are protected is another. Modern approaches maximise the safe removal of the tumour and minimise any risk to healthy brain tissue. Techniques, over the years, have moved away from large, invasive openings. Many patients today are candidates for minimally invasive or keyhole procedures with these offering less pain, shorter hospital stays and faster returns to daily life.
Brain tumours are categorised broadly. This depends on where they originate from and whether they are cancerous. Plotting the correct surgical course depends on understanding the distinction between them.
Primary brain tumours begin in the brain itself. Some are benign such as meningiomas or schwannomas and are slow growing. Glioblastomas or medulloblastomas are more malignant and aggressive. Most primary tumours rarely spread to other organs but that doesn't stop their location from causing significant disability.
More common are secondary or metastatic brain tumours. They occur when cancer cells from another part of the body. This movement happens most often from the lungs, breast, or colon where they travel through the bloodstream and establish new growth in the brain. These often require a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy as they are almost always malignant.
The type, but more critically the tumour's size, its exact location and the patient's overall general health guide the decision to operate. Every case is reviewed individually, at NMC, to ensure the approach is tailored to the person, not just the diagnosis.
