A surgeon will typically remove as much of the tumor as he or she can without damaging other critical, healthy brain structures. Often, surgery is followed up by chemotherapy, radiation, or a mix of both. Therapy may be more or less aggressive, depending upon the tumor behavior and patient condition.
Astrocytomas often reappear - the reoccurrence of the tumor are often visible on MRI. The recurrent tumors are then treated similarly as the initial tumor, with sometimes more aggressive chemo or radiation therapy.
There is great life expectancy variation between different subsets of brain tumor. Age and initial diag ...
Astrocytomas have great variation in their presentation. WHO acknowledges the following grading system for astrocytomas:
WHO Grade 1 — pilocytic astrocytoma - accounts for 5% of all reported brain tumors, with a median age at diagnosis of 12 years. This brain tumor is primarily pediatric, although it is also found in adults.
WHO Grade 2 — astrocytoma
WHO Grade 3 — anaplastic (malignant) astrocytoma - accounts for 7% of all primary brain tumors, with the median age at diagnosis of 51 years of age.
