There’s no need to talk again about the quality of the German healthcare system. Thanks to the highly equipped medical facilities and innovative treatment methods, the survival rate of brain cancer patients remains high in Germany.

Is surgery effective for brain tumors?

It depends on the characteristics of a tumor and the surgical approach. Generally, surgical resection is the primary medical option for brain tumor patients and the first step toward recovery.

With that said, if the tumor has spread, the surgeon will not be able to remove it completely. But even in cases of inoperable tumors, the correctly chosen measures can significantly improve the patient’s well-being. Needless to say, surgery alone may not be enough in many cases, but it is still effective as a part of a complex therapeutic regimen.

The standard procedure conducted in the department of neurosurgery is craniotomy. A craniotomy involves removing a small skull fragment to reach the tumor and surrounding tissues. Some patients undergo a safer and less traumatic procedure called an endoscopic surgery.

Bypass surgery can be used as an option for brain tumor treatment in Germany. This surgery allows normalization of the intracranial pressure. Often, a growing neoplasm interferes with the normal flow of cerebrospinal fluid, causing severe manifestations.

Cryosurgery is another type of brain tumor surgery. Among other diseases, German clinics have successfully practiced this technique to treat brain tumors. Cryosurgery destroys malignant cells using low temperatures during intervention. This method has successfully treated various neoplasms, including those located in functionally active areas of the brain.

Radiotherapy and drug treatment

Radiation therapy usually supplements or replaces surgery in patients with inoperable neoplasms, and chemotherapy is often indicated to fight rapidly growing brain tumors. However, some brain conditions respond to therapies better than the others.

Since tumor cells are not much different from normal cells in the way they grow, the toxic effect of chemotherapy extends to healthy tissues. When there’s a risk of severe side effects, the physicians adjust the therapeutic regimen. Considering the possible side effects and subsequent limited administration of irradiation, proton therapy is the type of radiotherapy that has now been widely used in German clinics.

Novel brain tumor treatment in Germany

One of the alternative methods of fighting malignant brain tumors involves using a patient’s immune cells to kill cancer. Research on how effective this technique is in the case of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive brain tumor, has been carried out.

In several independent clinical trials, scientists have proved that immunotherapy could be efficient enough to fight glioblastoma. The scientists reported the benefits of prescribing PD-1 inhibitors (programmed cell death protein) in patients with recurrent operable glioblastoma. The reason for this was targeting the tumor-specific T-lymphocytes during therapy, which ensured the proper immune response.

You can find more information about brain tumor treatment in Germany on the Booking Health website.

Is it possible to undergo treatment in Germany during a lockdown?

With every wave of COVID-19, the idea of going abroad for treatment becomes more unrealistic for people. But is it hard to pursue? Well, the answer depends on how you will go about treatment organization, and here you have two main options: organize treatment yourself or get help with organizing, which involves contacting a medical tourism company.

When you use the services of Booking Health, you can be sure that you’ll undergo treatment in the specialized medical facility and be free from the need to negotiate with hospital representatives. Booking Health takes care of scheduling appointments and additional examinations and treatments, booking airline tickets, forwarding medications during a lockdown, etc.

Feel free to contact Booking Health if you have any questions, and if you want to find more information about clinic and treatment options, click here.