What Is A Meningioma And How Exactly Is It Treated?

The word meningioma may sound quite familiar, even to those not familiar with the term. This is for good reason, as it resembles the term meningitis. They are different medical conditions, but they relate to the same area of anatomy.

Everybody’s brain and spinal cord are covered with a network of membranes in three layers, known as the meninges. Meningitis is a viral infection that causes severe inflammation in these membranes and can be fatal unless treated swiftly. By contrast, a meningioma is not so dramatic a thing to suffer from, but it is a tumour most patients need treatment for.

Meningioma Types

People will often associate a tumour with cancer, but most meningiomas are not cancerous. Anaplastic (Grade III) meningiomas, which are cancerous, account for only a few per cent of cases. These grow quickly and require swift treatment. They occur more often in men than in women.

Benign meningiomas come in two categories: Grade I (typical), which are slow-growing, and Grade II, which are atypical and more treatment-resistant. As the names suggest, Grade I tumours are far more common.

All meningiomas are caused by a chromosomal deficiency, although risks are higher for women, black people, those aged over 65 and people who have had radiotherapy on the head before.

Because they are located in the membranes around the brain rather than the brain itself, meningiomas are not classed as brain tumours. They are also the most common kinds of cranial tumour.

Symptoms And Diagnosis

Many meningiomas don’t need treatment or won’t require it for a long time, as they grow so slowly that it takes a long time to notice any sign that they may be present. However, once they are large enough to put pressure on the meninges and the brain, tell-tale symptoms can start to emerge.

These include headaches, loss of senses such as smell, hearing and vision, memory problems and even seizures. At this point, CT or MRI scans can reveal a meningioma.

Treatment Options

Several options exist for meningioma treatment, including observation (if no significant symptoms are occurring at the time of diagnosis), surgery to remove it, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Because seizures will be regarded as a medical emergency, surgery may be used as an immediate response.

In the case of radiotherapy, this can include the use of Gamma Knife to deliver stereotactic radiotherapy, the most precise form of radiation beam delivery and the kind used when seeking to minimise radiation exposure in brain tissue.

Unless complete excision is possible, which is not always the case, meningiomas can be recurrent.

Treatment For Atypical and Anaplastic Meningiomas

Because they are more persistent than typical (Grade I) tumours, atypical (Grade II) tumours need more robust treatment, which usually comes in the form of a combination of surgery and radiotherapy. A significant risk with atypical tumours is that they can spread into adjacent cranial bone tissue.

In the case of anaplastic (cancerous) tumours, the treatment needs to start as soon as possible, as there is a risk of metastasis, when the cancer spreads to other parts of the body, including the brain. Once again, treatments will include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and sometimes other treatments such as targeted therapies.

What this does mean is that if you have just had a diagnosis of a meningioma, the treatment options will vary, as will the extent to which treatment may need to be aggressive and the chances of the tumour recurring.

For all these reasons, the process of treating a meningioma is not always straightforward and there are different options and combinations. If you have been suffering from this kind of tumour and are not happy with your treatment so far, we may be able to help.

The use of radiotherapy can vary in form, but we have the skills and equipment to provide the best stereotactic radiotherapy, ensuring the most precise treatment is given.

Balancing Radiotherapy Use With Side Effects

Radiotherapy does bring some side effects, with common problems including fatigue, skin soreness, hair loss, gastric problems and a loss of appetite. For all these reasons, the best treatment involves minimising exposure of healthy tissue to radiation and delivering the necessary dose in the fewest sessions possible.

This way, the amount of time you experience side effects and their severity can be minimised, while maximising the precise use of radiation to shrink the tumour. This would be true for any tumour and not just a meningioma.

With effective treatment, you will have an enhanced prospect of being able to live a normal life for years to come, free of the symptoms that can be caused by an enlarged meningioma pressing on your brain through the meninges.

Learn more about our advanced radiotherapy treatments for meningiomas on the Queen Square website.