Central Nervous System Cancer—also known as CNS cancer—can affect your brain, your spinal cord, or both.

Fortunately, not all central nervous system tumors are malignant, or cancerous. Certain tumors are slow-growing, and are curable.

Click here to download our CNS cancer information sheet.

Signs and Symptoms

If you have CNS cancer, you may experience symptoms such as:

• Headaches
• Seizures
• Mood swings
• Loss of senses
• Hallucinations, confusion and disorientation
• Weakness or numbness
• Problems with your speech, memory or vision

Screening and Diagnosis

To diagnose Central Nervous System cancer, we may give you:

• A thorough neurological exam, including questions and activities designed to help pinpoint the location of a problem within your central nervous system
• Tests for your memory, speech, balance, vision, reflexes and muscle function
• A CT or MRI scan to get a detailed image of your brain and spinal cord
• A biopsy

Because cancers from other parts of the body can spread to the brain, we may also check other parts of your body to see if there are any signs of cancer anywhere else.

Treatment Options

Treatment options  for CNS cancer include:

• Gamma Knife radiosurgery—a non-invasive technique that has proven very effective in treating CNS cancers. This method delivers an extremely precise dose of radiation using approximately 200 narrow radiation beams all focused at the same point, which minimizes the risk of damage to the surrounding healthy tissue (side effects may include a temporary worsening of neurological symptoms). Dr. Dhiren K. Shah has performed Gamma Knife procedures on hundreds of patients during the past 10 years, making him one of the most experienced physicians in the country when it comes to this advanced technique. Gamma Knife is also known as a radiosurgery technique, or stereotactic radiosurgery, and is designed for the treatment of vascular malformations, benign tumors, metastases and other malignant tumors as well as functional disorders. Dr. Shah performs Gamma Knife surgery at Roswell Park.

• External Beam Radiation Therapy—which uses high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors. A machine called a linear accelerator creates the radiation beam, which is typically only “on” for a minute or two per treatment. The treatments are fast, safe, and do not make you radioactive—it is fine for family members and friends to be around you. We use Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and 3D radiation techniques, both of which allow us to deliver a higher dose of radiation. While side effects are minimized, they may include a temporary worsening of neurological symptoms, and temporary hair loss.

• Steroids—which can reduce inflammation and swelling, and therefore help eliminate some of the symptoms of CNS cancer.

• Neurosurgery—to try and remove part or all of the tumor.

• Chemotherapy drugs—which are effective in treating some CNS cancers. If you are being treated with chemotherapy, you may also go for radiation therapy, as these two types of treatment work well together to treat certain CNS cancers.

Contact us to learn more about Cancer treatment options

For more information about any of our services, please call 716-844-5500 for our Cheektowaga office, 716-338-9500 for our Jamestown office, or 716-898-2850 for our Niagara County office, email info@cancercarewny.com, or fill out this online form.