Chemotherapy is often ineffective for treating brain tumors. Why?

Question

Brain tumors must be treated with radiation or surgery because of the ineffectiveness of chemotherapy. Why is chemotherapy ineffective?

Answer 1

There is a Blood - Brain barrier.
Brain tumor cases do not tolerate the toxicity of chemotherapy what with their own problems being quite drastic.
Brain cancers are very lethal. No point putting these cases through the toxic effects of chemotherapy if Surgery has been ruled out due to the advanced stage of the cancer.

Answer 2

As Dr CNS points out, most chemotherapy have a hardtime of getting into the brain b/c of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). But actually, depending on the type of brain tumor, there are some effective chemotherapies that are known to cross the BBB. Chemotherapy can also be given intrathecally (directly injected into the fluid around the central nervous system) and act locally.
It's all relative though. Depending on which cancer you compare it to, primary brain tumor may be more or less responsive to chemotherapy.

Answer 3

Chemotherapy is often ineffective on other organs tumors too. Sometimes chemo, radiation and surgery are ALL ineffective.

Answer 4

No. Chemotheraphy makes use of particular medications that selectively kill melanoma cells. Or more notably, they are toxic supplies that happen to be much more poisonous to cancer cells than to usual cells. Nonetheless, in a non-cancerous tumor, all of the cells are by and large average, so chemo agents do not selectively ruin the tumor cells and are as a result of little need.

Answer 5

No. Chemotheraphy makes use of specific drugs that selectively kill maximum cancers cells. Or greater in particular, they're poisonous ingredients that ensue to be plenty greater poisonous to maximum cancers cells than to generic cells. although, in a non-cancerous tumor, each and all of the cells are frequently generic, so chemo brokers do no longer selectively wreck the tumor cells and are for this reason of no use.

Answer 6

That's not true at all. It depends on the type of tumor, it's size and it's location. Sometimes you can't do radiation or surgery and chemo is the only option:

http://brain.mgh.harvard.edu/ChemoGuide.htm