Meningioma Treatment

Meningioma is a rare type of childhood brain tumor. It accounts for only 1–5% of all pediatric brain tumors.

Meningiomas can occur anywhere in the brain or spinal cord. The symptoms depend on the location of the tumor.

The cause of meningioma is unknown most of the time. It can occur in children and adolescents who have had radiation to the brain for previous cancer treatment.

A small number of meningiomas in children can also be linked to a genetic disorder. Your doctor will determine if genetic testing is needed based on your child’s medical history and family history.

Meningioma diagnosis

Meningiomas are best diagnosed with brain or spine imaging. This may include both CT scans and MRI scans.

Surgery is often recommended to confirm the diagnosis and to do molecular testing to better understand the type of meningioma.

Types of meningiomas

There are different types of meningiomas depending on what they look like under the microscope and what the mutations (genetic changes) are in the tumor.

Types of meningiomas include:

• Anaplastic meningioma
• Atypical meningioma
• Chordoid subtype
• Clear cell subtype
• Fibroblastic subtype
• Meningothelial subtype
• Papillary subtype
• Psammomatous subtype
• Rhabdoid subtype

Treatment of meningioma 

• Surgery is most often used to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Sometimes the whole tumor cannot be removed because doing so would risk damaging the brain or other important areas including nerves to the eyes and/or ears.
• Closely watching over time may be the right choice for some children with meningioma depending on the type of meningioma, location of meningioma, and how much can be removed with surgery.
• Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill tumor cells and stop them from growing. and can be an important part of treatment of meningioma for your child depending on the type of meningioma, if it can be totally removed by surgery, or if it comes back.

Meningioma prognosis

Generally, the outlook is good for a child whose tumor is removed completely with surgery. Prognosis can vary based on several factors. Your child’s care team can help you answer questions about the prognosis.

Meningioma care at St. Jude

St. Jude provides the highest quality of care for patients with meningioma:

• We bring together medical experts and specially trained staff to care for your child. We also work with brain surgeons (neurosurgeons) at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
• We have a special team that helps understand the makeup of the tumor. This team includes doctors and scientists who study:
  • Cancer cells
  • How the cancer happened
  • Current medicines and treatments to kill cancer cells
  • What makes cancer cells grow and what new medicines can stop them
  • New medicines and other therapies to improve how treatments work
• Our brain tumor clinical trials have led to better therapies in children. These improvements include lower-dose therapies, targeted therapy, and proton therapy. These treatments kill cancer cells while sparing healthy cells and may lessen the severity of side effects that affect brain function after treatment for some types of brain tumors.
• The St. Jude Proton Therapy Center is the first center in the world that treats only children with this therapy.
• Along with the treatment studies constantly being developed at St. Jude, the staff also treats patients on studies developed by the Children’s Oncology Group, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, and the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium. Many St. Jude staff members play key roles in developing these studies. They are large trials carried out at multiple centers across the United States. 
• St. Jude offers a dedicated team of specialists to meet the needs of children with brain tumors, including:
  • Surgeons, doctors, and nurses who treat this cancer
  • Doctors who specialize in radiation therapy and pathology (making a diagnosis by looking at tumor tissue under the microscope)
  • Experts in radiology and nuclear medicine
  • Genetic counselors
  • Clinical dietitians
  • Child life specialists
  • Psychologists
  • Researchers and scientists

More reasons to choose St. Jude for care include:

• We are consistently ranked among the best childhood cancer centers in the nation by US News & World Report.
• At St. Jude, we have created an environment where children can be children and families can be together.
• We lead more clinical trials for childhood cancer than any other hospital in the U.S. 
• St. Jude is the only National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Center just for children. A Comprehensive Cancer Center meets rigorous standards for research that develops new and better approaches to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.
• The nurse-to-patient ratio at St. Jude is about 1:3 in hematology and oncology and 1:1 in the Intensive Care Unit.
• Patients may be able to get expert, compassionate care and treatment closer to their homes through our St. Jude Affiliate clinics.

Get more information about the Brain Tumor Treatment program at St. Jude.

Meningioma clinical trials

St. Jude offers clinical trials and cancer research studies for children, teens, and young adults with meningioma and other brain tumors. Learn more about clinical research at St. Jude.

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