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The UW Health Brain Tumor Center in Madison, Wisconsin provides comprehensive treatment for patients with brain tumors. Working in concert with the UW Carbone Cancer Center, our multidisciplinary team sees more than 1,200 brain tumor patients annually with common as well as rare brain cancers.

Oligodendroglioma tumors originate in the glial tissue that supports the brain. They are distinguised from astrocytoma tumors by their shape. Whereas astrocytoma tumors have "long arms," oligodendroglioma tumors are compact. They resemble fried eggs when viewed in a microscope.

 

Oligodendroglioma tumors can be grade 2 or grade 3. They occur most frequently in young and middle-aged adults but are seen in children, as well.

 

Symptoms

 

Seizures are the most common initial symptom for oligodendroglioma tumors.

 

Oligodendroglioma Treatment

 

Oligodendroglioma tumors usually are found in the cerebral hemisphere, and often in the brain's frontal lobe. Surgery to completely remove the tumor is the optimal treatment but tumor location sometimes makes full tumor removal difficult.

 

Radiation therapy is an option if surgery does not remove the entire tumor.

• Learn more about UW Carbone Cancer Center radiation therapy options
• Before, During and After Radiation Therapy

Following initial treatment physicians will use follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screens staggered at consistent intervals to watch for recurrence.