Treatment for Tumors

Surgical removal of vascular tumors (tumors with an intense blood supply) located in the brain and spine is often challenging because it can be difficult to control blood loss during surgery.  The endovascular technique used to block blood vessels that supply blood to tumors is called embolization.  Immediately before surgery, embolization of major tumor blood vessels improves the surgeon's ability to control blood loss when removing the tumor (see figure below).

Tumor types that are often treated with preoperative embolization include meningiomas, glomus tumors, angiofibromas, aneurysmal bone cysts, metastatic tumors (especially renal or thyroidal), hemangiomas, and hemangioblastomas.