| Malignant
brain tumors are often dealt with through a combination of surgical
debulking, radiation, and chemotherapy. The blood brain barrier
may prevent adequate amounts of chemotherapeutic agents from reaching
the tumor within the brain. Some ways of getting around this
problem are to open the tight junctions of the cells lining the blood
vessels by giving mannitol first, to shrink the cells, giving chemotherapeutic
agents directly into the cerebrospinal fluid by lumbar puncture of
Ommaya reservoir, or placing chemotherapy impregnated wafers within
the cavity in the brain from where the tumor was resected. |
Glossary 
