Brain & Spinal Cord Tumors

Life is often busy and full of adventure. A health diagnosis can abruptly stop even the busiest of people. When you’re diagnosed with cancer, your focus changes to fighting the disease using the best treatment options available. This focus is no different for adults with brain and spinal cord tumors.

Treatment for cancer in the central nervous system varies from that of tumors that metastasize, or spread, to the brain or spinal cord. At SSM Health Cancer Care, our skilled care teams help patients fight both brain and spinal cord tumors. We design a customized treatment plan for you, involving you in every decision-making stage of your treatment, so you can be a part of your care.

Central Nervous System Tumors We Treat

SSM Health Cancer Care actively sees and treats:

• Glioma: group of tumors that start in glial cells and are often fast-growing
• Astrocytomas: tumors that originate in the star-shaped astrocyte cells in the brain; may spread in a fluctuating manner with some cells either not growing, or growing slowly, and others advancing more aggressively
• Oligodendrogliomas: slow growing brain tumors that can infiltrate nearby brain tissue, making them difficult to remove completely by surgery
• Ependymoma: spread through the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathway but not beyond the brain or spinal cord
• Mixed gliomas: tumor comprised of more than one cell type
• Meningioma: Twice as common in women, tumor originates in the meninges — the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord
• Medulloblastoma: fast-growing tumors that spread through the CSF pathway
• Ganglioglioma: uncommon in adults often cured with surgery and/or radiation therapy
• Schwannomas (neurilemoma): benign tumors affecting the nerve sheath, often grow slowly by pushing aside nerve fibers and may surround and insulate the cranial nerve

SSM Health is here to help you through a brain or spinal cord tumor diagnosis. Our cancer specialists have the necessary tools and expertise to accurately diagnose and develop a treatment plan specifically for you.