Brain Cancer Treatment Around the World

Because brain cancer is one of the more lethal cancers, with an average five-year survival rate of only around 34 percent, developing an effective treatment regime is of paramount importance. Fortunately, brain cancer treatments are fairly unified around the world, thanks to the development of the International Brain Tumor Alliance in May 2005. Generally speaking, to beat brain cancer you should focus your efforts around a healthy diet in conjunction with surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

Cancer Diet

• Follow a high-fat, low-carb diet to significantly slow the growth and development of brain tumors. This is according to a study conducted in 2007 at the women's hospital at the University of Würzburg by Dr. Melanie Schmidt. There, patients were fed a ketogenic diet (less than 30 grams of carbs per day). The tumors of many patients enrolled in the study stopped growing or shrank.

  You should strive to limit yourself to a diet consisting of lean protein, healthy monounsaturated fat (as from almonds or peanut oil), and no carbs but those found in green, fibrous veggies such as broccoli and spinach.

Surgery

• Consider surgery as a treatment option if your doctor determines that your tumor is operable. According to the website OncologyChannel.com, surgery is the treatment of choice when the tumor can be reached through conventional means. During surgery, doctors will perform a craniotomy, which involves opening the skull and removing as much of the tumor as is possible without causing damage to the surrounding healthy tissue.

Chemotherapy

• Consider conventional chemotherapy when your tumor is inoperable or in conjunction with surgical procedures. Chemotherapy consists of the intravenous application of low doses of toxic chemicals designed to target and kill the cancer cells. Unfortunately, chemotherapy is not a precise science, so your healthy cells will be affected as well during the procedure, just to a lesser extent. Chemotherapy is effective in combating existing localized tumors as well as being used where the cancer has spread throughout the body.