Treatment

Surgery

Surgery is often the first step in treating glioblastoma. Surgery allows the medical team to get a biopsy and make a diagnosis, relieve pressure on the brain, and safely remove as much tumor as possible. Glioblastomas are diffuse and have finger-like tentacles that infiltrate the brain, which makes them very difficult to remove completely. This is particularly true when the tumors are growing near important regions of the brain that control functions such as language and movement/coordination.

Radiation and chemotherapy

Radiation therapy uses powerful energy beams to kill cancer cells. The energy can come from sources such as X-rays and protons. During radiation therapy, you lie on a table while a machine moves around you. The machine directs radiation to certain points in your brain.

Radiation therapy is usually recommended after surgery. It might be combined with chemotherapy. For people who can't have surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy may be the main treatment.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses strong medicines to kill cancer cells. A chemotherapy medicine taken as a pill is often used after surgery and during and after radiation therapy. Other types of chemotherapy given through a vein might be the treatment for glioblastoma that returns.

Sometimes thin, circular wafers containing chemotherapy medicine might be put in the brain during surgery. The wafers dissolve slowly, releasing the medicine to kill cancer cells.

Tumor treating fields (TTF) therapy

TTF uses an electrical field to disrupt the cancer cells' ability to multiply. TTF involves putting sticky pads on the scalp. The pads are connected to a portable device that creates an electrical field.

TTF works with chemotherapy. It might be suggested after radiation therapy.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy uses medicines that attack specific chemicals in the cancer cells. By blocking these chemicals, targeted treatments can cause cancer cells to die.

Supportive care

Supportive care, which is also called palliative care, focuses on relieving pain and other symptoms of serious illness. This extra layer of support goes with other treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy.