What Brain Tumour Awareness Month 2025 Has Taught Us
May has been Brain Tumour Awareness Month in multiple countries, which makes this a very good time to consider what progress has been made in developing the understanding and awareness of brain tumours, as well as advances in treatments.
When it comes to matters as serious as cancer, it really is relevant and important to understand how far we have come and what kinds of treatments exist. This is especially true if you or a loved one is a sufferer.
Of course, it can be easy to lose track of the themed days and months on the calendar, with a plethora of awareness days and months for various causes, many of them medical. Indeed, in the US, a type of brain tumour – Glioblastoma – has its own awareness day in July.
The US, Canada and Australia mark brain tumour awareness month in May, whereas the UK does so in March. In either case, this provides a very good opportunity to take stock of what has been discovered about tumours and also how they have been treated, as well as providing extra impetus (and funding) to research efforts around the world.
The Treatments We Have Now
The standard way to treat brain tumours is either excision by physical surgery or the use of radiotherapy. Sometimes a combination of both may be used. Patients coming to our radiotherapy centres may receive a range of different forms of treatment.
Among the different forms of radiotherapy for tumours is external beam radiotherapy, which involves directing a beam of radiation at the tumour from a source outside the body, usually using a linear accelerator machine.
The development of this treatment has not just been down to the invention and subsequent fine-tuning of the linear accelerator itself, but accompanying technology such as MRI and CT scans. This makes possible 3D conformal radiation therapy, where a 3D map of the tumour helps guide the delivery of the radiation.
Intensity modulated radiation therapy is a variation of this, where the strength of the radiation can be varied between different beams used in the treatment of a tumour. This is especially useful where the area targeted is closer to normal brain tissue, enabling the exposure of such tissue to harmful radiation to be minimised.
The Emergence Of The Gamma Knife
Another form of radiotherapy is stereotactic radiosurgery. This involves a particularly precise focus of the radiation beam on a specific area of the tumour.
This is commonly carried out with a gamma knife, which, despite its name, is not a knife but a device designed to produce a very concentrated beam of radiation, with the great benefit of minimising radiation exposure to surrounding tissue.
Radiotherapy has been used since the turn of the 20th century, but the gamma knife was a more recent development, which can be attributed to the Swedish neurosurgeon Lars Leksell, who patented it in 1967. A second version was produced in the 1970s as the technology improved, but this has been about fine-tuning a great device, not reinventing it.
In this context, it is useful to observe that there is already a huge amount that can be done to help patients with brain tumours, especially through radiotherapy, often through surgery and sometimes through other methods such as chemotherapy, although the latter is usually deployed in combination with other treatments rather than being used on its own.
What Are The Latest Advancements?
Nonetheless, an article published in the journal Cure Today has highlighted how new developments have further enhanced the power of radiotherapy to offer better treatments for patients with fewer side effects.
The article focused on a discussion to mark Brain Tumour Awareness Month in which Dr Ranjit Bindra, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine in the US, stated that proton therapy and image-guided precision have been major contributors to improvements in both areas.
He also noted that individualised and evidence-based cancer care can be made even better by close collaboration between all those involved, from neurosurgeons to radiation oncologists.
Positive news about developments such as proton therapy may also point the way towards a brighter future, with Dr Bindra striking an optimistic note about what further research can achieve, provided sufficient funding is available.
He commented: “As long as we maintain that funding, we will continue to make wonderful discoveries and change the lives of patients with brain cancer.”
Reasons To Be Positive
What this year’s Brain Tumour Awareness Month (be it March or May) has helped to highlight, therefore, is that radiotherapy continues to advance and deliver better outcomes with fewer side-effects for patients, with good reasons to expect further progress in the years ahead.
At Amethyst, we already use the best radiotherapy techniques and technology to seek optimal outcomes for patients, whether for brain tumours or other cancers. In the years to come, we may be able to do even more.
Learn more about our advanced radiotherapy treatments for brain tumours on the Amethyst Group website.
