Question: What are the treatments for Childhood Craniopharyngioma ?
Answer: Key Points - There are different types of treatment for children with craniopharyngioma. - Children with craniopharyngioma should have their treatment planned by a team of health care providers who are experts in treating brain tumors in children. - Childhood brain tumors may cause signs or symptoms that begin before the cancer is diagnosed and continue for months or years. - Some treatments for tumors cause side effects months or years after treatment has ended. - Five types of treatment are used: - Surgery (resection) - Surgery and radiation therapy - Surgery with cyst drainage - Chemotherapy - Biologic therapy - Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. - Patients can enter clinical trials before, during, or after starting their treatment. - Follow-up tests may be needed. There are different types of treatment for children with craniopharyngioma. Different types of treatments are available for children with craniopharyngioma. Some treatments are standard (the currently used treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials. A treatment clinical trial is a research study meant to help improve current treatments or obtain information on new treatments for patients with tumors. When clinical trials show that a new treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new treatment may become the standard treatment. Because tumors in children are rare, taking part in a clinical trial should be considered. Clinical trials are taking place in many parts of the country. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI website. Choosing the most appropriate treatment is a decision that ideally involves the patient, family, and health care team. Children with craniopharyngioma should have their treatment planned by a team of health care providers who are experts in treating brain tumors in children. Treatment will be overseen by a pediatric oncologist, a doctor who specializes in treating children with tumors. The pediatric oncologist works with other pediatric healthcare providers who are experts in treating children with brain tumors and who specialize in certain areas of medicine. These may include the following specialists: - Pediatrician. - Neurosurgeon. - Radiation oncologist. - Neurologist. - Endocrinologist. - Ophthalmologist. - Rehabilitation specialist. - Psychologist. - Social worker. - Nurse specialist. Childhood brain tumors may cause signs or symptoms that begin before the cancer is diagnosed and continue for months or years. Signs or symptoms caused by the tumor may begin before diagnosis and continue for months or years. It is important to talk with your child's doctors about signs or symptoms caused by the tumor that may continue after treatment. Some treatments for tumors cause side effects months or years after treatment has ended. Side effects from tumor treatment that begin during or after treatment and continue for months or years are called late effects. Late effects of tumor treatment may include the following: - Physical problems such as seizures. - Behavior problems. - Changes in mood, feelings, thinking, learning, or memory. - Second cancers (new types of cancer). The following serious physical problems may occur if the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, optic nerves, or carotid artery are affected during surgery or radiation therapy: - Obesity. - Metabolic syndrome, including fatty liver disease not caused by drinking alcohol. - Vision problems, including blindness. - Blood vessel problems or stroke. - Loss of the ability to make certain hormones. Some late effects may be treated or controlled. Life-long hormone replacement therapy with several medicines may be needed. It is important to talk with your child's doctors about the effects tumor treatment can have on your child. (See the PDQ summary on Late Effects of Treatment for Childhood Cancer for more information). Five types of treatment are used: Surgery (resection) The way the surgery is done depends on the size of the tumor and where it is in the brain. It also depends on whether the tumor has grown into nearby tissue in a finger-like way and expected late effects after surgery. The types of surgery that may be used to remove all of the tumor that can be seen with the eye include the following: - Transsphenoidal surgery: A type of surgery in which the instruments are inserted into part of the brain by going through an incision (cut) made under the upper lip or at the bottom of the nose between the nostrils and then through the sphenoid bone (a butterfly-shaped bone at the base of the skull). - Craniotomy: Surgery to remove the tumor through an opening made in the skull. Sometimes all of the tumor that can be seen is removed in surgery and no further treatment is needed. At other times, it is hard to remove the tumor because it is growing into or pressing on nearby organs. If there is tumor remaining after the surgery, radiation therapy is usually given to kill any tumor cells that are left. Treatment given after the surgery, to lower the risk that the cancer will come back, is called adjuvant therapy. Surgery and radiation therapy Partial resection is used to treat some craniopharyngiomas. It is used to diagnose the tumor, remove fluid from a cyst, and relieve pressure on the optic nerves. If the tumor is near the pituitary gland or hypothalamus, it is not removed. This reduces the number of serious side effects after surgery. Partial resection is followed by radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is a tumor treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill tumor cells or keep them from growing. There are two types of radiation therapy: - External radiation therapy uses a machine outside the body to send radiation toward the tumor. - Internal radiation therapy uses a radioactive substance sealed in needles, seeds, wires, or catheters that are placed directly into or near the tumor. The way the radiation therapy is given depends on the type of tumor, whether the tumor is newly diagnosed or has come back, and where the tumor formed in the brain. External and internal radiation therapy are used to treat childhood craniopharyngioma. Because radiation therapy to the brain can affect growth and development in young children, ways of giving radiation therapy that have fewer side effects are being used. These include: - Stereotactic radiosurgery: For very small craniopharyngiomas at the base of the brain, stereotactic radiosurgery may be used. Stereotactic radiosurgery is a type of external radiation therapy. A rigid head frame is attached to the skull to keep the head still during the radiation treatment. A machine aims a single large dose of radiation directly at the tumor. This procedure does not involve surgery. It is also called stereotaxic radiosurgery, radiosurgery, and radiation surgery. - Intracavitary radiation therapy: Intracavitary radiation therapy is a type of internal radiation therapy that may be used in tumors that are part solid mass and part fluid-filled cyst. Radioactive material is placed inside the tumor. This type of radiation therapy causes less damage to the nearby hypothalamus and optic nerves. - Intensity-modulated proton therapy: A type of radiation therapy that uses streams of protons (tiny particles with a positive charge) to kill tumor cells. A computer is used to target the exact shape and location of the tumor with proton therapy. This type of 3-dimensional radiation therapy may cause less damage to healthy tissue in the brain and other parts of the body. Proton radiation is different from x-ray radiation. Surgery with cyst drainage Surgery may be done to drain tumors that are mostly fluid-filled cysts. This lowers pressure in the brain and relieves symptoms. A catheter (thin tube) is inserted into the cyst and a small container is placed under the skin. The fluid drains into the container and is later removed. Sometimes, after the cyst is drained, a drug is put through the catheter into the cyst. This causes the inside wall of the cyst to scar and stops the cyst from making fluid or increases the amount of the time it takes for the fluid to build up again. Surgery to remove the tumor may be done after the cyst is drained. Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses anticancer drugs to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. When chemotherapy is taken by mouth or injected into a vein or muscle, the drugs enter the bloodstream and can reach tumor cells throughout the body (systemic chemotherapy). When chemotherapy is placed directly into the cerebrospinal fluid or an organ, the drugs mainly affect tumor cells in those areas (regional chemotherapy). Intracavitary chemotherapy is a type of regional chemotherapy that places drugs directly into a cavity, such as a cyst. It is used for craniopharyngioma that has come back after treatment. Biologic therapy Biologic therapy is a treatment that uses the patients immune system to fight cancer. Substances made by the body or made in a laboratory are used to boost, direct, or restore the bodys natural defenses against cancer. This type of cancer treatment is also called biotherapy or immunotherapy. For craniopharyngioma that has come back after treatment, the biologic therapy drug is placed inside the tumor using a catheter (intracavitary) or in a vein (intravenous). Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. For some patients, taking part in a clinical trial may be the best treatment choice. Clinical trials are part of the medical research process. Clinical trials are done to find out if new treatments are safe and effective or better than the standard treatment. Many of today's standard treatments are based on earlier clinical trials. Patients who take part in a clinical trial may receive the standard treatment or be among the first to receive a new treatment. Patients who take part in clinical trials also help improve the way diseases will be treated in the future. Even when clinical trials do not lead to effective new treatments, they often answer important questions and help move research forward. Check the list of NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with childhood craniopharyngioma. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your child's doctor about clinical trials that may be right for your child. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI website. Patients can enter clinical trials before, during, or after starting their treatment. Some clinical trials only include patients who have not yet received treatment. Other trials test treatments for patients who have not improved. There are also clinical trials that test new ways to stop a disease from recurring (coming back) or reduce the side effects of treatment. Clinical trials are taking place in many parts of the country. See the Treatment Options section that follows for links to current treatment clinical trials. These have been retrieved from NCI's clinical trials database. Follow-up tests may be needed. Some of the tests that were done to diagnose the disease or decide how to treat it may be repeated. Some tests will be repeated in order to see how well the treatment is working. Decisions about whether to continue, change, or stop treatment may be based on the results of these tests. Some of the tests will continue to be done from time to time after treatment has ended. The results of these tests can show if your condition has changed. These tests are sometimes called follow-up tests or check-ups. After treatment, follow-up testing with MRI will be done for several years to check if the tumor has come back. Treatment Options for Childhood Craniopharyngioma Newly Diagnosed Childhood Craniopharyngioma Treatment of newly diagnosed childhood craniopharyngioma may include the following: - Surgery (resection) with or without radiation therapy. - Partial resection followed by radiation therapy. - Cyst drainage with or without radiation therapy or surgery. Check the list of NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with childhood craniopharyngioma. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your child's doctor about clinical trials that may be right for your child. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI website. Recurrent Childhood Craniopharyngioma Craniopharyngioma may recur (come back) no matter how it was treated the first time. Treatment options for recurrent childhood craniopharyngioma depend on the type of treatment that was given when the tumor was first diagnosed and the needs of the child. Treatment may include the following: - Surgery (resection). - External-beam radiation therapy. - Stereotactic radiosurgery. - Intracavitary radiation therapy. - Intracavitary chemotherapy or intracavitary biologic therapy. - Intravenous biologic therapy. - Cyst drainage. - A clinical trial of biologic therapy. Check the list of NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with childhood craniopharyngioma. For more specific results, refine the search by using other search features, such as the location of the trial, the type of treatment, or the name of the drug. Talk with your child's doctor about clinical trials that may be right for your child. General information about clinical trials is available from the NCI website.