Inoperable brain tumors cannot be safely removed with surgery, but alternative treatments are available. Determining whether or not to cure a tumor with surgery depends on various factors, and consulting with multiple surgeons can provide balanced advice. Tumors may be inoperable due to location, vascularity, size, or patient health concerns.
An inoperable brain tumor is a tumor in the brain that cannot be safely removed with surgery due to location, size, or other problems. Alternative treatments are available for such cancers and need not be a death sentence. Some grow very slowly, for example, and a patient may be able to control the growth of an inoperable brain tumor with medication and radiation therapy to live a normal life.
Determining whether or not to cure a tumor with surgery depends on a number of factors. Every surgeon has a different approach to evaluating and treating cancer. A tumor that one surgeon declares inoperable may be considered curable with surgery by another. Patients may consider consulting with several surgeons to get balanced advice about their treatment options and to make a decision with as much information as possible in hand.
One reason a tumor may be inoperable is because it is in a very complicated location. Neurosurgeons cannot access every corner of the brain or may be concerned that while they could reach the tumor, they could also cause significant collateral damage. The risks to a patient’s quality of life may be too great when balanced against the benefits of surgery, and a surgeon may decide that a patient has an inoperable brain tumor based on this.
Another concern can be vascularity. Some tumors grow in discreet pockets and are very easy to remove. The surgeon can find the margins and lift the intact tumor during surgery to increase the chances of a successful outcome. An inoperable brain tumor may extend, contain tissue that closely resembles normal brain tissue, or become entangled with blood vessels in the brain. Sometimes this represents too great a surgical challenge and it would be dangerous to operate.
A brain tumor may also be too large to be safely removed by a surgeon. The tumor may be wrapped around critical structures in the brain or be too difficult to differentiate from healthy tissue due to its size and level of growth. The surgeon may recommend a partial excision to obtain as much tissue as possible, but this may also expose the patient to the risk of metastasis by rupturing the tumor and seeding it around the skull.
Other concerns may surround the patient’s health. The tumor itself may be operable, but a surgeon may be concerned that the patient will not survive surgery or grueling cancer treatments. In this case, subjecting the patient to surgical trauma would be unethical and the surgeon may instead recommend palliative care and more conservative treatments.
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