Brain Tumor Center

Advanced radiation therapy techniques destroy cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy organs and tissue. This reduces the risk of treatment-related side effects and long-term complications. Cincinnati Children’s offers:

• Proton therapy, which uses pencil beam scanning, the most advanced proton therapy technology available. Learn more. 
• Stereotactic radiosurgery, which delivers high doses of radiation using custom-shaped beams to difficult-to-reach areas
• Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, which delivers radiation of different intensities that conforms to a tumor’s shape

The BrainSUITE is an operating room with highly specialized equipment that helps surgeons be more precise in locating and removing brain tumors. This can preserve areas of the brain that control important functions, such as speech and movement. Cincinnati Children’s was the first children’s hospital in the world to use this system.

During surgeries on the brain, computer-generated images automatically match information from diagnostic tests with the patient’s position on the operating table. This allows the neurosurgeon to see the exact position of the surgical instruments in relation to the targeted brain tissue.

Bone marrow transplantation offers a way to provide intense chemotherapy for brain and spine tumors, and can help reduce the need for radiation therapy in some children. Our multidisciplinary team has performed more than 1,900 bone marrow transplants in the program’s 31-year history.

The process involves preserving a patient’s healthy bone marrow, delivering high-dose therapy, then returning the healthy cells to the patient to help encourage the recovery of the immune system.

When a tumor of the brain or spine does not respond to treatment or returns following treatment, the care team may develop a new strategy involving innovative therapies such as:

• Tumor genetic testing, which allows us to individualize treatment plans based on a tumor’s genetic markers
• Targeted small molecule anticancer agents and immune-modulating therapy regimens. Targeted therapies act specifically on tumor cells by directing therapy against mutations or markers found in these cells. Immunotherapy encourages the body’s own immune system to control the tumor.