Chemotherapy is the preferred secondary treatment after resection. The treatment kills astroblastoma cells left behind after surgery and induces a non-dividing, benign state for remaining tumor cells. Normally, chemotherapy is not recommended until the second required resection, implying that the astroblastoma is a high-grade tumor continuing to recur every few months. A standard chemotherapy protocol starts with two rounds of nimustine hydrochoride (ACNU), etoposide, vincristine, and interferon-beta. The patient undergoes a strict drug regimen until another surgery is required. By the third surgery, should recurrence in the astroblastoma occur, a six-round program of ifosfamide, cisplatin, and etoposide will "shock" the patient's system to the point where recurrence halts. Unfortunately, chemotherapy may not always be successful with patients requiring further resection of the tumor, since the tumor cell begins to show superior vasculature and a strong likelihood of compromising a patient's well-being. Oral ingestion of temozolomide for at-home bedside use may be preferred by the patient.

Radiation therapy may cause swelling in the brain, related to tissue inflammation. This inflammation may lead to symptoms like headaches. It may be treated with oral medication.

Even after surgery, an oligoastrocytoma will often recur. The treatment for a recurring brain tumor may include surgical resection, chemo and radiation therapy. Survival time of this brain tumor varies - younger age and low-grade initial diagnosis are factors in improved survival time.

Symptoms of PXA may disappear, or improve progressively, after treatment. For example:

- Symptoms related to increased pressure in the brain often disappear after surgical removal of the tumor.

- Effects like seizures might progressively improve as recovery progresses.

- Steroid treatment is often used to control tissue swelling that may occur before and after surgery.

For recurrent high-grade glioblastoma, recent studies have taken advantage of angiogenic blockers such as bevacizumab in combination with conventional chemotherapy, with encouraging results.

Children with cerebellar pilocytic astrocytoma may experience side effects related to the tumor itself depending on the location and related to the treatment. Strabismus.

- Symptoms related to increased pressure in the brain often disappear after surgical removal of the tumor.

- Effects on coordination and balance improved and might progressively (to completely) disappear as recovery progresses.

- Steroid-treatment is often used to control tissue swelling that may occur pre- and post-operatively.

- Children Diagnosed can also suffer long term side effects due to the type of treatment they may receive.

Treatment for brain gliomas depends on the location, the cell type, and the grade of malignancy. Often, treatment is a combined approach, using surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. The radiation therapy is in the form of external beam radiation or the stereotactic approach using radiosurgery. Spinal cord tumors can be treated by surgery and radiation. Temozolomide, a chemotherapeutic drug, is able to cross the blood–brain barrier effectively and is currently being used in therapy for high-grade tumors.

The most common form of treatment is having the tumor surgically removed however total resection is often not possible. The location could prohibit access to the neoplasm and lead to incomplete or no resection at all. Removal of the tumor will generally allow functional survival for many years. In particular for pilocytic astrocytomas (that are commonly indolent bodies that may permit normal neurologic function) surgeons may decide to monitor the neoplasm's evolution and postpone surgical intervention for some time. However, left unattended these tumors may eventually undergo neoplastic transformation.

If surgery is not possible, recommendations such as chemotherapy or radiation be suggested however side effects from these treatments can be extensive and long term.

Radiation therapy selectively kills astroblastoma cells while leaving surrounding normal brain tissue unharmed. The use of radiation therapy after an astroblastoma excision has variable results. Conventional external beam radiation has both positive and negative effects on patients, but it is not recommended at this point to treat all types. All in all, the radiosensitivity of astroblastoma to therapy remains unclear, since some research advocate its effectiveness while others diminish the effects. Future studies must be done on patients with both total excision and sub-excision of the tumor to accurately assess whether radiation benefits patients under different circumstances.

Radiation therapy may include photon-beam or proton-beam treatment, or fractionated external beam radiation. Radiosurgery may be used in lieu of surgery in small tumors located away from critical structures. Fractionated external-beam radiation also can be used as primary treatment for tumors that are surgically unresectable or, for patients who are inoperable for medical reasons.

Radiation therapy often is considered for WHO grade I meningiomas after subtotal (incomplete) tumor resections. The clinical decision to irradiate after a subtotal resection is somewhat controversial, as no class I randomized, controlled trials exist on the subject. Numerous retrospective studies, however, have suggested strongly that the addition of postoperative radiation to incomplete resections improves both progression-free survival (i.e. prevents tumor recurrence) and improves overall survival.

In the case of a grade III meningioma, the current standard of care involves postoperative radiation treatment regardless of the degree of surgical resection. This is due to the proportionally higher rate of local recurrence for these higher-grade tumors. Grade II tumors may behave variably and there is no standard of whether to give radiotherapy following a gross total resection. Subtotally resected grade II tumors should be radiated.

Likely, current chemotherapies are not effective. Antiprogestin agents have been used, but with variable results. A 2007 study of whether hydroxyurea has the capacity to shrink unresectable or recurrent meningiomas is being further evaluated.

Treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma is a multidisciplinary practice involving the use of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and possibly immunotherapy. Surgery is generally the first step in a combined therapeutic approach. Resectability varies depending on tumor site, and RMS often presents in sites that don't allow for full surgical resection without significant morbidity and loss of function. Less than 20% of RMS tumors are fully resected with negative margins. Fortunately, rhabdomyosarcomas are highly chemosensitive, with approximately 80% of cases responding to chemotherapy. In fact, multi-agent chemotherapy is indicated for all patients with rhabdomyosarcoma. Before the use of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy involving chemotherapeutic agents, treatment solely by surgical means had a survival rate of <20%. Modern survival rates with adjuvant therapy are approximately 60–70%.

There are two main methods of chemotherapy treatment for RMS. There is the VAC regimen, consisting of vincristin, actinomyocin D, and cyclophosphamide, and the IVA regimen, consisting of ifosfamide, vincristin, and actinomyocin D. These drugs are administered in 9–15 cycles depending on the staging of the disease and other therapies used. Other drug and therapy combinations may also show additional benefit. Addition of doxorubicin and cisplatin to the VAC regimen was shown to increase survival rates of patients with alveolar-type, early-stage RMS in IRS study III, and this same addition improved survival rates and doubled bladder salvage rates in patients with stage III RMS of the bladder.

Radiation therapy, which kill cancer cells with focused doses of radiation, is often indicated in the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma, and the exclusion of this treatment from disease management has been shown to increase recurrence rates. Radiation therapy is used when resecting the entirety of the tumor would involve disfigurement or loss of important organs (eye, bladder, etc.). Generally, in any case where a lack of complete resection is suspected, radiation therapy is indicated. Administration is usually following 6–12 weeks of chemotherapy if tumor cells are still present. The exception to this schedule is the presence of parameningeal tumors that have invaded the brain, spinal cord, or skull. In these cases radiation treatment is started immediately. In some cases, special radiation treatment may be required. Brachytherapy, or the placement of small, radioactive “seeds” directly inside the tumor or cancer site, is often indicated in children with tumors of sensitive areas such as the testicles, bladder, or vagina. This reduces scattering and the degree of late toxicity following dosing. Radiation therapy is more often indicated in higher stage classifications.

Immunotherapy is a more recent treatment modality that is still in development. This method involves recruiting and training the patient's immune system to target the cancer cells. This can be accomplished through administering small molecules designed to pull immune cells towards the tumors, taking immune cells pulled from the patient and training to attack tumors through presentation with tumor antigen, or other experimental methods. A specific example here would be presenting some of the patient's dendritic cells, which direct the immune system to foreign cells, with the PAX3-FKHR fusion protein in order to focus the patient's immune system to the malignant RMS cells. All cancers, including rhabdomyosarcoma, could potentially benefit from this new, immune-based approach.

Chemotherapy regimens for pediatric ependymomas have produced only modest benefit and degree of resection remains the most conspicuous factor in recurrence and survival.

The association of "TERT" expression with poor outcome in pediatric ependymomas has driven some researchers to suggest that telomerase inhibition may be an effective adjuvant therapy for pediatric ependymomas. Further, data from "in vitro" experiments using primary tumor isolate cells suggest that inhibition of telomerase activity may inhibit cell proliferation and increase sensitivity of cells to DNA damaging agents, consistent with the observation of high telomerase activity in primary tumors. Additionally, because apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease ("APE1") has been found to confer radiation resistance in pediatric ependymomas, it has been suggested that inhibitors of Ap endo activity might also restore radiation sensitivity.

Within the infratentorial group of pediatric ependymomas, radiotherapy was found to significantly increase 5-year survival. However, a retrospective review of sterotactic radiosurgery showed it provided only a modest benefit to patients who had previously undergone resection and radiation. Though other supratentorial tumors tend to have a better prognosis, supratentorial anaplastic ependymomas are the most aggressive ependymoma and neither total excision nor postoperative irradiation was found to be effective in preventing early recurrence.

Following resection of infratentorial ependymomas, residual tumor is more likely in lateral versus medial tumors, classified radiologically pre-operatively. Specific techniques, such as cerebellomedullary fissure dissection have been proposed to aid in complete resection while avoiding iatrogenic effects in these cases. Surveillance neuroimaging for recurrence provides additional survival to patients over observation alone.

Oligodendrogliomas are generally felt to be incurable using current treatments. However compared to the more common astrocytomas, they are slowly growing with prolonged survival. In one series, median survival times for oligodendrogliomas were 11.6 years for grade II and 3.5 years for grade III.

However, such figures can be misleading since they do not factor in the types of treatment nor the genetic signature of the tumors. A recent study analyzed survival based on chromosomal deletions and the effects of radiation or chemotherapy as treatment, with the following results (both low-grade and anaplastic oligodendrogliomas): 1p/19q deletion with radiation = 121 months (mean), 1p/19q deletion with chemotherapy = over 160 months (mean not yet reached), no 1p/19q deletion with radiation = 58 months (mean), and no 1p/19q deletion with chemotherapy = 75 months (mean). Another study divided anaplastic oligodendrogliomas into the following four clinically relevant groups of histology with the following results: combined 1p/19q loss = median survival was >123 months (not yet reached), 1p loss only = median survival was 71 months, 1p intact with TP53 mutation = median survival 71 months, and 1p intact with no TP53 mutation = median survival was 16 months.

Because of the indolent nature of these tumors and the potential morbidity associated with neurosurgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, most neurooncologists will initially pursue a course of watchful waiting and treat patients symptomatically. Symptomatic treatment often includes the use of anticonvulsants for seizures and steroids for brain swelling. PCV chemotherapy (Procarbazine, CCNU and Vincristine) has been shown to be effective and was the most commonly used chemotherapy regimen used for treating anaplastic oligodendrogliomas, but is now being superseded by a newer drug: Temozolomide. Temozolomide is a common chemotherapeutic drug to which oligodendrogliomas appear to be quite sensitive. It is often used as a first line therapy, especially because of its relatively mild side effects when compared to other chemotherapeutic drugs.

Nevertheless, a retrospective study on 1054 patients with anaplastic oligodendroglioma, presented during the 2009 ASCO Annual Meeting, suggests that PCV therapy may be superior in efficacy to the newer temozolomide therapy. Median time to progression for patients with 1p19q co-deletion was longer following PCV alone (7.6 years) than with temozolomide alone (3.3 years); median overall survival was also longer with PCV treatment versus temozolomide treatment (not reached, vs. 7.1 years).

The standard dosing schedule of temozolomide is 5 consecutive days of daily dosing during 28-day cycles. However, different dosing schedules may produce better results, such as continuous daily dosing using lower amounts of drug (e.g. 21-day dosing during 28-day cycles). As an example of an altered dosing schedule, promising results have been shown using lower daily doses on each day for 7 weeks, followed by a 4-week off periods. Regarding the duration of dosing, for oligodendrogliomas the duration prescribed by oncologists varies considerably and seems to range from 6 cycles to over 32 cycles (i.e. over 3 years). In one study, researchers compared patients who received temozolomide for at least 12 months on the 5/28 day cycle, dividing such patients into two groups: "short term" patients receiving temozolomide for 12-18 cycles and those "long term" patients receiving 19 or more cycles (range was 19 to 32 cycles). Researchers found that there was a statistically significant advantage for "long term" treatment (median progression free survival for "short term" patients was 95 weeks (follow up of 73 weeks), but for "long term" patients the median progression free survival was not yet reached (follow up of 134 weeks)).

Because of their diffusely infiltrating nature, oligodendrogliomas cannot be completely resected and are not curable by surgical excision. If the tumor mass compresses adjacent brain structures, a neurosurgeon will typically remove as much of the tumor as he or she can without damaging other critical, healthy brain structures. Surgery may be followed up by chemotherapy, radiation, or a mix of both, but recent studies suggest that radiation does not improve overall survival (even when age, clinical data, histological grading, and type of surgery are considered). However, a recent long-term study does affirm that radiation combined with adjuvant chemotherapy is significantly more efficacious for anaplastic oligodendroglioma patients with 1p 19q co-deleted tumors and has become the new standard of care. However, it is possible that radiotherapy may prolong the overall time to progression for non-deleted tumors.

Oligodendrogliomas, like all other infiltrating gliomas, have a very high (almost uniform) rate of recurrence and gradually increase in grade over time. Recurrent tumors are generally treated with more aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Recently, stereotactic surgery has proven successful in treating small tumors that have been diagnosed early.

Long-term survival is reported in a minority of patients. With aggressive treatment and close monitoring, it is possible to outlive the typical life expectancies for both low grade and high grade oligodendrogliomas. Westergaard's

study (1997) showed that patients younger than 20 years had a median survival of 17.5 years. Another study shows a 34% survival rate after 20 years. However, as discussed above, such figures can be misleading since they do not factor in the types of treatment nor the genetic signature of the tumors. Additionally, such historic data loses significance due to the relatively long survival of patients (compared to other types of brain tumors) and the introduction of newer treatment options over time.

The standard initial treatment is to remove as much of the tumor as possible without worsening neurologic deficits. Radiation therapy has been shown to prolong survival and is a standard component of treatment. There is no proven benefit to adjuvant chemotherapy or supplementing other treatments for this kind of tumor. Although temozolomide is effective for treating recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma, its role as an adjuvant to radiation therapy has not been fully tested.

Quality of life after treatment depends heavily on the area of the brain that housed the tumor. In many cases, patients with anaplastic astrocytoma may experience various types of paralysis, speech impediments, difficulties planning and skewed sensory perception. Most cases of paralysis and speech difficulties can be rehabilitated with speech, occupational, physical, and vision therapy.

If resected, the surgeon will remove as much of this tumor as possible, without disturbing eloquent regions of the brain (speech/motor cortex) and other critical brain structure. Thereafter, treatment may include chemotherapy and radiation therapy of doses and types ranging based upon the patient's needs. Subsequent MRI examination are often necessary to monitor the resection cavity.

Definitive treatment for ganglioglioma requires gross total surgical resection, and a good prognosis is generally expected when this is achieved. However, indistinct tumor margins and the desire to preserve normal spinal cord tissue, motor and sensory function may preclude complete resection of tumor. According to a series by Lang et al., reviewing several patients with resected spinal cord ganglioglioma, the 5- and 10-year survival rates after total resection were 89% and 83%, respectively. In that study, patients with spinal cord ganglioglioma had a 3.5-fold higher relative risk of tumor recurrence compared to patients with supratentorial ganglioglioma. It has been recognized that postoperative results correlate closely with preoperative neurological status as well as the ability to achieve complete resection.

With the exception of WHO grade III anaplastic ganglioglioma, radiation therapy is generally regarded to have no role in the treatment of ganglioglioma. In fact, radiation therapy may induce malignant transformation of a recurrent ganglioglioma several years later. Adjuvant chemotherapy is also typically reserved for anaplastic ganglioglioma, but has been used anecdotally in partially resected low grade spinal cord gangliogliomas which show evidence of disease progression.

hTERT and yH2AX are crucial markers for prognosis and response to therapy. High hTERT and low yH2AX expression is associated with poor response to therapy. Patients with both high or low expression of these markers make up the moderate response groups.

Determination of treatment options depends on certain factors, some of which affect internal organs and others that affect personal appearance. When determining treatment, oncologists consider the initial location the tumor, the likelihood of body function deterioration, the effect on appearance, and the patient's potential response to chemotherapy and radiation. Surgery is the least successful of the treatment options; the tumor cannot be completely removed because it develops within the cells. Chemotherapy follows surgery to shrink or eliminate the remaining cancer cells.

Stem cell research under clinical trial shows promise to replace lost cells.

The aggressiveness of this cancer requires the response of a large team of specialists, possibly including a pediatric surgeon, oncologist, hematologist, specialty nurse, and rehabilitation specialists. Social workers and psychologists aid recovery by building a system of emotional support. Treatment is harsh on the body and may result in side effects including mood swings, learning difficulties, memory loss, physical deformations or restrictions, and potential risk of secondary cancers.

The goal of radiation therapy is to kill tumor cells while leaving normal brain tissue unharmed. In standard external beam radiation therapy, multiple treatments of standard-dose "fractions" of radiation are applied to the brain. This process is repeated for a total of 10 to 30 treatments, depending on the type of tumor. This additional treatment provides some patients with improved outcomes and longer survival rates.

Radiosurgery is a treatment method that uses computerized calculations to focus radiation at the site of the tumor while minimizing the radiation dose to the surrounding brain. Radiosurgery may be an adjunct to other treatments, or it may represent the primary treatment technique for some tumors. Forms used include stereotactic radiosurgery, such as Gamma knife, Cyberknife or Novalis Tx radiosurgery.

Radiotherapy may be used following, or in some cases in place of, resection of the tumor. Forms of radiotherapy used for brain cancer include external beam radiation therapy, the most common, and brachytherapy and proton therapy, the last especially used for children.

Radiotherapy is the most common treatment for secondary brain tumors. The amount of radiotherapy depends on the size of the area of the brain affected by cancer. Conventional external beam "whole-brain radiotherapy treatment" (WBRT) or "whole-brain irradiation" may be suggested if there is a risk that other secondary tumors will develop in the future. Stereotactic radiotherapy is usually recommended in cases involving fewer than three small secondary brain tumors.

People who receive stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for the treatment of metastatic brain tumors have more than twice the risk of developing learning and memory problems than those treated with SRS alone.

The primary and most desired course of action described in medical literature is surgical removal (resection) via craniotomy. Minimally invasive techniques are becoming the dominant trend in neurosurgical oncology. The prime remediating objective of surgery is to remove as many tumor cells as possible, with complete removal being the best outcome and cytoreduction ("debulking") of the tumor otherwise. In some cases access to the tumor is impossible and impedes or prohibits surgery.

Many meningiomas, with the exception of some tumors located at the skull base, can be successfully removed surgically.

Most pituitary adenomas can be removed surgically, often using a minimally invasive approach through the nasal cavity and skull base (trans-nasal, trans-sphenoidal approach). Large pituitary adenomas require a craniotomy (opening of the skull) for their removal. Radiotherapy, including stereotactic approaches, is reserved for inoperable cases.

Several current research studies aim to improve the surgical removal of brain tumors by labeling tumor cells with 5-aminolevulinic acid that causes them to fluoresce. Postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy are integral parts of the therapeutic standard for malignant tumors. Radiotherapy may also be administered in cases of "low-grade" gliomas when a significant tumor burden reduction could not be achieved surgically.

Multiple metastatic tumors are generally treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy rather than surgery and the prognosis in such cases is determined by the primary tumor, and is generally poor.

Treatment depends on the location of the disease and the aggressiveness of the tumors. Because chondrosarcomas are rare, they are treated at specialist hospitals with Sarcoma Centers.

Surgery is the main form of treatment for chondrosarcoma. Musculoskeletal tumor specialists or orthopedic oncologists are usually chosen to treat chondrosarcoma, unless it is located in the skull, spine, or chest cavity, in which case, a neurosurgeon or thoracic surgeon experienced with sarcomas is chosen. Often, a limb-sparing operation can be performed, but in some cases amputation is unavoidable. Amputation of the arm, leg, jaw, or half of the pelvis (called a hemipelvectomy) may be necessary in some cases.

There are two kinds of hemipelvectomy - internal and external.

- External hemipelvectomy - is removal of that half of the pelvis with the amputation of the leg. It is also called the hindquarter amputation.

- Internal hemipelvectomy - is removal of that half of the pelvis, but the leg is left intact.

Amputation at the hip is called hip disarticulation and amputees who have had this amputation are also called hip disartics.

Chemotherapy or traditional radiotherapy are not very effective for most chondrosarcomas, although proton therapy is showing promise with local tumor control at over 80%.

Complete surgical ablation is the most effective treatment, but sometimes this is difficult. Proton therapy radiation can be useful in awkward locations to make surgery more effective.

Recent studies have shown that induction of apoptosis in high-grade chondrosarcoma, both directly and by enhancement of response to chemotherapy and radiation, is a valid therapeutic strategy.

Thyroidectomy and neck dissection show good results in early stages of SCTC. However, due to highly aggressive phenotype, surgical treatment is not always possible. The SCTC is a radioiodine-refractory tumor. Radiotherapy might be effective in certain cases, resulting in relatively better survival rate and quality of life. Vincristine, Adriamycin, and bleomycin are used for adjuvant chemotherapy, but their effects are not good enough according to published series.

These lesions rarely require surgery unless they are symptomatic or the diagnosis is in question. Since these lesions do not have malignant potential, long-term observation is unnecessary. Surgery can include the removal of the head of the pancreas (a pancreaticoduodenectomy), removal of the body and tail of the pancreas (a distal pancreatectomy), or rarely removal of the entire pancreas (a total pancreatectomy). In selected cases the surgery can be performed using minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy.

The role of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in thyroid cancer remains controversial and there is no level I evidence to recommend its use in the setting of differentiated thyroid cancers such as papillary and follicular carcinomas. Anaplastic thyroid carcinomas, however, are histologically distinct from differentiated thyroid cancers and due to the highly aggressive nature of ATC aggressive postoperative radiation and chemotherapy are typically recommended.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines currently recommend that postoperative radiation and chemotherapy be strongly considered. No published randomised controlled trials have examined the addition of EBRT to standard treatment, namely surgery. Radioactive iodine is typically ineffective in the management of ATC as it is not an iodine-avid cancer.

Imbalances in age, sex, completeness of surgical excision, histological type and stage, between patients receiving and not receiving EBRT, confound retrospective studies. Variability also exists between treatment and non-treatment groups in the use of radio-iodine and post-treatment thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression and treatment techniques between and within retrospective studies.

Some recent studies have indicated that EBRT may be promising, though the number of patients studies has been small.

Clinical trials for investigational treatments are often considered by healthcare professionals and patients as first-line treatment.