Cancerous tumors can show up in the brain as one of two basic types — primary brain tumors, like gliomas (the most common type), that start in the brain, and cancers that spread (or metastasize) to the brain from other primary sites in the body, such as lung cancer, breast cancer, or melanoma that spreads to the brain.
Neurosurgeons and their colleagues treat each type of cancer differently, using a combination of techniques including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
We sat down with University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Center member Peter Fecci, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurosurgery in the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, to learn more about the origins of cancer in the brain and how different types are treated.