What is Glioma?

A glioma is a type of tumor that originates in the central nervous system, specifically in the brain or spinal cord. They originate in glial cells. Glial cells are supportive cells in the brain which serve to protect and maintain the neurons.

How glioma is treated depends on what sort of tumor a patient has as well as its grade, or how aggressive the tumor is considered.

“Gliomas are graded … we measure the aggressiveness of that cancer within the microscope,” Dr. Ashley Ghiaseddin, a neuro-oncologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, tells SurvivorNet. “It is rare for the cancer to actually spread outside of the brain or spinal cord, so that grading just tells you how aggressive it is and really determines the treatment that we want to offer to those patients.”

Getting a glioma diagnosis is naturally very nerve-wracking, but there have been some promising developments in recent years, which we’ll break down for you with help from some of the top experts from around the Southeast area.

In this in-depth overview, we provide insights from top oncologists and experts about what to expect from diagnosis through how patients are monitored after treatment.