The American Brain Tumour Association cites two types of glioblastomas. These include:

Primary, or “de novo”

These tumours tend to form and make their presence known quickly. This is the most common form of glioblastoma; it is very aggressive.

Secondary

These tumours have a longer, somewhat slower growth history, but still are very aggressive. They may begin as lower-grade tumours, which eventually become higher grade. They tend to be found in people 45 and younger, and represent about 10 per cent of glioblastomas.

Depending on your individual case, your glioblastoma care plan may include:

Surgery

The first treatment step is surgery, to remove as much as the tumour as possible. This is done using advanced image-guided techniques (such as MRI, ultrasound, X-ray). During this surgery, the patient is awake (sometimes sedated) to allow intraoperative mapping.

Surgery is almost always followed by secondary treatment, such as radiation and/or chemotherapy. This is because glioblastomas infiltrate into the brain, making it difficult to completely remove the whole tumour during surgery.

Radiation & Chemotherapy

After surgery, a patient is treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy, an advanced type of radiation. This treatment is combined with chemotherapy.

Clinical trials

Patients may also enroll in clinical trials, which test new approaches at treating glioblastomas.

Glioblastoma is a difficult cancer to treat. Some reasons include:

• The tumour cells are very resistant to conventional therapies
• The brain is susceptible to damage due to conventional therapy
• The brain has a very limited capacity to repair itself
• Many drugs cannot cross the blood-brain barrier to act on the tumour.