Brain tumor surgery is a critical first step in many patient treatment plans. Yet, most people don’t know about surgery options, types of surgery, which members of your medical team will be performing surgery, and many other issues that you need to understand fully before making your treatment decisions.
Once you are diagnosed, your team may encourage you to have your surgery as soon as possible. There are certainly benefits of an expedient surgery, negatives to delaying surgery, and, also, benefits to delaying surgery to explore additional options.
In scheduling and having your surgery as soon as possible, you limit the amount your tumor can grow in size before you have it removed, if it is a fast-growing tumor. In delaying surgery, you run the risk of your tumor invading other critical areas of your brain. By delaying your surgery, you allow yourself time to research clinical trials, as you may not qualify for certain clinical trials once a craniotomy, or other procedure, is performed.