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MENINGIOMA THE MENINGIOMA:
The idea that someone we care about has a brain tumor is virtually unthinkable; yet, sometimes it must be considered. The meningioma is probably the most common cause of seizures in dogs over age six years of age. It behooves us to “know our enemy” and it turns out there is a fair amount to know about this tumor. The meningioma accounts for approximately 50% of all brain tumors in the dog and up to 85% of all brain tumors in the cat.
Meningiomas are generally benign, meaning that they do not create “cancer.” They do not spread to other areas of the body or invade and destroy tissue local to them. The reason they are a problem is that there is a limited amount of space within the skull. The brain and its bath of cerebrospinal fluid takes up almost all the room and when a tumor begins to grow, the brain tissue is compressed. Inflammation can result leading to more swelling and soon nerves of the brain are damaged.
SIGNS OF MENINGIOMA In the dog, seizures are the most common sign. In cats, signs are more vague and consist of listlessness and behavior changes. The following signs have been reported with meningiomas (largely depending on the brain area involved):
Here are some things we know:
WHAT KIND OF TESTING IS DONE FOR POSSIBLE BRAIN TUMOR? A basic blood panel (and urinalysis if possible) is the foundation for virtually every medical work up as this will help us assess the patient’s general health. Obviously, it is important to identify if any other problems are present to contend with but it is worth pointing out that routine bloodwork cannot confirm a brain tumor. Chest radiographs are important to screen for cancer spread. Often times, brain tumors are the result of spread from a malignancy that developed somewhere else. In one study, 55% of brain tumors had not actually started in the brain but had spread there from some other location.
TREATMENT
MEDICATION If the goal is “palliation,” in other words just keeping the pet comfortable and minimizing seizures, prednisone can be used to relieve swelling in the brain tissue and anti-seizure medication such as phenobarbital or potassium bromide can be used to control seizures. Prednisone is surprisingly effective in shrinking a meningioma simply by decreasing tumor blood flow. (In one study the tumor’s blood volume was 21% reduced within 24 hours of beginning prednisone.) Eventually, the tumor will grow too big to respond to these tactics but for a time they are usually effective (3-6 months survival in one study). A more definitive therapy involves surgical removal of the tumor and/or radiation therapy, both very expensive treatments.
SURGERY As noted earlier, in the cat the meningioma is an easier tumor to remove than it is in the dog. Most cats do well with surgery and mortality is very low. As the tumor has very benign behavior in the cat generally speaking survival rates are good (in one study, 71% were alive 6 months after surgery, 66% were alive one year after surgery and 50% were alive two years after surgery. Approximately one cat in five will have a tumor recurrence within 27 months. The story is a bit different in the dog where the tumor is less well defined. Canine tumors tend to be more invasive into the surrounding brain and it is hard for the surgeon to tell where to cut (approximately 1/3 of canine meningiomas infiltrate normal brain tissue).That said, a study published in March of 2022 by A.K. Forward et al looked at outcomes for 101 dogs having meningioma surgery and found that 94% survived to go home and a median survival time was 386 days. (Approximately 50% died in the first year, 25% survived 1-2 years, 15% survived 2-3 years). These are very optimistic statistics.
RADIATION There are many different schedules used for radiation treatments: some weekly, some daily, some on alternate days. Radiation can be done instead of surgery or in combination with surgery and what protocols yield the longest survival times is not clear. Currently, the philosophy on treatment is that a combination of surgery plus radiation yields the best results for dogs. Cats seem to do so well with surgery that recommendations lean away from radiation.
RADIOSURGERY Radiosurgery involves using a focused dose of radiation to a well defined target in the brain effectively cutting a deep lesion away. Instead of using one radiation beam, several beams are focussed on the target such that the path of each beam through the brain is not damaged but the target where all the beams come together is destroyed. This technique is called "stereotactic radiosurgery" and uses either an adapted linear accelerator (a "LINAC") or a Gamma Knife, as is done in human brain tumor surgery. This procedure is particularly attractive as it is a one time treatment rather than a series of radiation treatments. The tumor must be small (less than one inch in diameter) for this type of treatment to work and currently only a few facilities offer it.
CHEMOTHERAPY For chemotherapy to be effective against brain tumors, the drugs used must be able to cross the
AUTOLOGOUS TUMOR LYSATE IMMUNOTHERAPY This therapy is performed after surgery and involves making a vaccine out of the tumor tissue that was removed. The tumor tissue is broken down into proteins and given as injections to train the immune system to attack any leftover tumor cells. In one study with dogs, the median survival of patients with surgery alone was 426 days and this increased to 870 days when immunotherapy was added after surgery. Find a veterinary oncologist in your area by selecting "oncology" in the specialty box at: http://find.vetspecialists.com Or find a Veterinary Cancer Society member at: http://vetcancersociety.org/pet-owners/find-a-vcs-member Page last updated: 5/9/2024 |