Treatment
At this time, there is no true cure (100% remission) for brain tumors in dogs (or any species for that matter.) In practice, brain tumors are generally considered to be malignant due to the delicate and poorly regenerative nature of neurons and restriction of the brain to the finite space of the cranium which does not allow tumor growth devoid of collateral damage to brain parenchyma. Therefore, general long-term prognosis for canine brain tumors is poor. Current treatment of brain tumors revolves around four main modalities: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and palliative (pain relieving) care. Depending on the type, extent, and location of the cancer, any one or combination of these techniques may be employed. For instance, the first line treatment for meningiomas is surgery but may be coupled with chemotherapy in an attempt to improve survival time. Intracranial tumors (such as glioblastoma) more commonly rely on radiation therapy as surgical access to the tumor may be prohibitively dangerous. Palliative care tends to include corticosteroids to help reduce swelling and edema around tumors as well as anti-convulsant medications to control seizuring.
Read more about this topic: Canine Brain Tumors
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.”
—Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.)
“The motion picture made in Hollywood, if it is to create art at all, must do so within such strangling limitations of subject and treatment that it is a blind wonder it ever achieves any distinction beyond the purely mechanical slickness of a glass and chromium bathroom.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,—the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)