Some benign tumors need no treatment; others may be removed if they cause problems such as seizures, discomfort or cosmetic concerns. Surgery is usually the most effective approach and is used to treat most benign tumors. In some case other treatments may be of use. Adenomas of the rectum may be treated with sclerotherapy, a treatment in which chemicals are used to shrink blood vessels in order to cut off the blood supply. Most benign tumors do not respond to chemotherapy or radiation therapy, although there are exceptions; benign intercranial tumors are sometimes treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy under certain circumstances. Radiation can also be used to treat hemangiomas in the rectum. Benign skin tumors are usually surgically resected but other treatments such as cryotherapy, curettage, electrodesiccation, laser therapy, dermabrasion, chemical peels and topical medication are used.

The main treatment modalities are surgery, embolization and radiotherapy.

Treatment may include the following:

- Surgery with or without radiation

- Radiotherapy

Fast neutron therapy has been used successfully to treat salivary gland tumors, and has shown to be significantly more effective than photons in studies treating unresectable salivary gland tumors.

- Chemotherapy

Overall, the mainstay of the treatment for salivary gland tumor is surgical resection. Needle biopsy is highly recommended prior to surgery to confirm the diagnosis. More detailed surgical technique and the support for additional adjuvant radiotherapy depends on whether the tumor is malignant or benign.

Surgical treatment of parotid gland tumors is sometimes difficult, partly because of the anatomical relationship of the facial nerve and the parotid lodge, but also through the increased potential for postoperative relapse. Thus, detection of early stages of a tumor of the parotid gland is extremely important in terms of prognosis after surgery.

Generally, benign tumors of the parotid gland are treated with superficial(Patey's operation) or total parotidectomy with the latter being the more commonly practiced due to high incidence of recurrence. The facial nerve should be preserved whenever possible. The benign tumors of the submandibular gland is treated by simple excision with preservation of mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve, the hypoglossal nerve, and the lingual nerve. Other benign tumors of minor salivary glands are treated similarly.

Malignant salivary tumors usually require wide local resection of the primary tumor. However, if complete resection cannot be achieved, adjuvant radiotherapy should be added to improve local control. This surgical treatment has many sequellae such as cranial nerve damage, Frey's syndrome, cosmetic problems, etc.

Usually about 44% of the patients have a complete histologic removal of the tumor and this refers to the most significant survival rate.

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.

Treatment generally consists of subfrontal or transsphenoidal excision. Surgery using the transsphenoidal route is often performed by a joint team of ENT and neurosurgeons. Because of the location of the craniopharyngioma near the brain and skullbase, a surgical navigation system might be used to verify the position of surgical tools during the operation.

Additional radiotherapy is also used if total removal is not possible. Due to the poor outcomes associated with damage to the pituitary and hypothalamus from surgical removal and radiation, experimental therapies using intracavitary phosphorus-32, yttrium, or bleomycin delivered via an external reservoir are sometimes employed, especially in young patients. The tumor, being in the pituitary gland, can cause secondary health problems. The immune system, thyroid levels, growth hormone levels and testosterone levels can be compromised from craniopharygioma. All of the before mentioned health problems can be treated with modern medicine. There is no high quality evidence looking at the use of bleomycin in this condition.

The most effective treatment 'package' for the malignant craniopharyngiomas described in literature is a combination 'gross total resective' surgery with adjuvant chemo radiotherapy. The chemotherapy drugs Paclitaxel and Carboplatin have shown a clinical (but not statistical) significance in increasing the survival rate in patients who've had gross total resections of their malignant tumours.

Wide, radical, complete surgical excision is the treatment of choice, with free surgical margins to achieve the best outcome and lowest chance of recurrence. Radiation is only used for palliation. In general, there is a good prognosis, although approximately 50% of patients die from disease within 3–10 years of presentation.

As the condition is quite rare, opinions among experts about how to treat OKCs differ.

Treatment options:

- Wide (local) surgical excision.

- Marsupialization - the surgical opening of the (OKC) cavity and a creation of a marsupial-like pouch, so that the cavity is in contact with the outside for an extended period, e.g. three months.

- Curettage (simple excision & scrape-out of cavity).

- Peripheral ostectomy after curettage and/or enucleation.

- Simple excision.

- Carnoy's solution - usually used in conjunction with excision.

- Enucleation and cryotherapy

Current research has shown ways of treating the tumors in a less invasive way while others have shown how the hypothalamus can be stimulated along with the tumor to prevent the child and adult with the tumor to become obese. Craniopharyngioma of childhood are commonly cystic in nature. Limited surgery minimizing hypothalamic damage may decrease the severe obesity rate at the expense of the need for radiotherapy to complete the treatment.

Role of Radiotherapy:

Aggressive attempt at total removal does result in prolonged progression-free survival in most patients. But for tumors that clearly involve the hypothalamus, complications associated with radical surgery have prompted to adopt a combined strategy of conservative surgery and radiation therapy to residual tumor with an as high rate of cure. This strategy seems to offer the best long-term control rates with acceptable morbidity. But optimal management of craniopharyngiomas remains controversial. Although it is generally recommended that radiotherapy is given following sub-total excision of a craniopharyngioma, it remains unclear as to whether all patients with residual tumour should receive immediate or differed at relapse radiotherapy. Surgery and radiotherapy are the cornerstones in therapeutic management of craniopharyngioma. Radical excision is associated with a risk of mortality or morbidity particularly as hypothalamic damage, visual deterioration, and endocrine complication between 45 and 90% of cases.The close proximity to neighboring eloquent structures pose a particular challenge to radiation therapy. Modern treatment technologies including fractionated 3-D conformal radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, and recently proton therapy are able to precisely cover the target while preserving surrounding tissue, Tumor controls between 80 and in access of 90% can be achieved. Alternative treatments consisting of radiosurgery, intracavitary application of isotopes, and brachytherapy also offer an acceptable tumor control and might be given in selected cases. More research is needed to establish the role of each treatment modality.

The treatment of choice for main-duct IPMNs is resection due to approximately 50% chance of malignancy. Side-branch IPMNs are occasionally monitored with regular CT or MRIs, but most are eventually resected, with a 30% rate of malignancy in these resected tumors. Survival 5 years after resection of an IPMN without malignancy is approximately 80%, 85% with malignancy but no lymph node spread and 0% with malignancy spreading to lymph nodes. 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 or robotic surgery. A study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result Registry (SEER) data suggested that increased lymph node counts harvested during the surgery were associated with better survival in invasive IPMN patients.

Complete surgical excision is the treatment of choice, associated with an excellent long term clinical outcome.

As metanephric adenomas are considered benign, they can be left in place, i.e. no treatment is needed.

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.

Treatment consists of wide resection or amputation. Metastases are rare at presentation but may occur in up to 30% of patients during the disease course. Prognosis is excellent, with overall survival of 85% at 10 years, but is lower when wide surgical margins cannot be obtained. This tumor is insensitive to radiation so chemotherapy is not typically used unless the cancer has metastasized to the lungs or other organs.

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.

For malignant teratomas, usually, surgery is followed by chemotherapy.

Teratomas that are in surgically inaccessible locations, or are very complex, or are likely to be malignant (due to late discovery and/or treatment) sometimes are treated first with chemotherapy.

Chondroblastoma has not been known to spontaneously heal and the standard treatment is surgical curettage of the lesion with bone grafting. To prevent recurrence or complications it is important to excise the entire tumor following strict oncologic criteria. However, in skeletally immature patients intraoperative fluoroscopy may be helpful to avoid destruction of the epiphyseal plate. In patients who are near the end of skeletal growth, complete curettage of the growth plate is an option. In addition to curettage, electric or chemical cauterization (via phenol) can be used as well as cryotherapy and wide or marginal resection. Depending on the size of the subsequent defect, autograft or allograft bone grafts are the preferred filling materials. Other options include substituting polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) or fat implantation in place of the bone graft. The work of Ramappa "et al" suggests that packing with PMMA may be a more optimal choice because the heat of polymerization of the cement is thought to kill any remaining lesion.

Both radiotherapy and chemotherapy are not commonly used. Radiotherapy has been implemented in chondroblastoma cases that are at increased risk of being more aggressive and are suspected of malignant transformation. Furthermore, radiofrequency ablation has been used, but is typically most successful for small chondroblastoma lesions (approximately 1.5 cm). Treatment with radiofrequency ablation is highly dependent on size and location due to the increased risk of larger, weight-bearing lesions being at an increased risk for articular collapse and recurrence.

Overall, the success and method of treatment is highly dependent upon the location and size of the chondroblastoma.

The treatment of choice is complete surgical removal ("i.e.," complete resection). Teratomas are normally well-encapsulated and non-invasive of surrounding tissues, hence they are relatively easy to resect from surrounding tissues. Exceptions include teratomas in the brain, and very large, complex teratomas that have pushed into and become interlaced with adjacent muscles and other structures.

Prevention of recurrence does not require "en bloc" resection of surrounding tissues.

Ocular oncology is the branch of medicine dealing with tumors relating to the eye and its adnexa.

Ocular oncology takes into consideration that the primary requirement for patients is preservation of life by removal of the tumor, along with best efforts directed at preservation of useful vision, followed by cosmetic appearance. The treatment of ocular tumors is generally a multi-specialty effort, requiring coordination between the ophthalmologist, medical oncologist, radiation specialist, head & neck surgeon/ENT surgeon, pediatrician/internal medicine/hospitalist and a multidisciplinary team of support staff and nurses.

Surgical excision of the lesion is done, and depending upon the clinical circumstances, this may or may not involve removal of the involved tooth. With incomplete removal, recurrence is common; some surgeons advocate curettage after extraction of teeth to decrease the overall rate of recurrence.

Carcinoma "in situ" is, by definition, a localized phenomenon, with no potential for metastasis unless it progresses into cancer. Therefore, its removal eliminates the risk of subsequent progression into a life-threatening condition.

Some forms of CIS (e.g., colon polyps and polypoid tumours of the bladder) can be removed using an endoscope, without conventional surgical resection. Dysplasia of the uterine cervix is removed by excision (cutting it out) or by burning with a laser. Bowen's disease of the skin is removed by excision. Other forms require major surgery, the best known being intraductal carcinoma of the breast (also treated with radiotherapy). One of the most dangerous forms of CIS is the "pneumonic form" of BAC of the lung, which can require extensive surgical removal of large parts of the lung. When too large, it often cannot be completely removed, with eventual disease progression and death of the patient.

They are benign lesions and malignant degeneration is rare. They are usually treated with curettage which however have a high recurrence rate of 25%. As such if an en-bloc resection is possible this is advisable

Treatment ranges from simple enucleation of the cyst to curettage to resection. For example, small radicular cyst may resolved after successful endodontic ("root-canal") treatment. Because of high recurrence potential and aggressive behaviour, curettage is recommended for keratocyst. However, the conservative enucleation is the treatment of choice for most odontogenic cysts. The removed cyst must be evaluated by pathologist to confirm the diagnosis, and to rule out other neoplastic lesions with similar clinical or radiographic features (e.g., cystic or solid ameloblastoma, central mucoepidermoid carcinoma). There are cysts, e.g. buccal bifurcation cyst with self-resolation nature, in which close observation can be employed unless the cyst is infected and symptomatic.

When a brain tumor is diagnosed, a medical team will be formed to assess the treatment options presented by the leading surgeon to the patient and his/her family. Given the location of primary solid neoplasms of the brain in most cases a "do-nothing" option is usually not presented. Neurosurgeons take the time to observe the evolution of the neoplasm before proposing a management plan to the patient and his/her relatives. These various types of treatment are available depending on neoplasm type and location and may be combined to give the best chances of survival:

- Surgery: complete or partial resection of the tumor with the objective of removing as many tumor cells as possible.

- Radiotherapy: the most commonly used treatment for brain tumors; the tumor is irradiated with beta, x rays or gamma rays.

- Chemotherapy: is a treatment option for cancer, however, it is not always used to treat brain tumors as the blood-brain barrier can prevent some drugs from reaching the cancerous cells.

- A variety of experimental therapies are available through clinical trials.

Survival rates in primary brain tumors depend on the type of tumor, age, functional status of the patient, the extent of surgical tumor removal and other factors specific to each case.

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.