Questions to ask your doctor about a brain tumour

Here we’ll suggest some questions to ask your doctor about a brain tumour. These may help you better understand your diagnosis, treatment plan, and care.

On this page, we’ll cover questions to ask about:

• Diagnosis
• Treatments
• Your healthcare team
• How a brain tumour could affect your lifestyle
• After treatment

Make the right choices for you

Our Step by Step interactive guide outlines what happens following a diagnosis, to answer your questions and help you to understand what to expect.

Read our guide

Questions to ask your doctor about a brain tumour

You may want to write down a list of questions, or print this list to take with you when you see your medical team. It may also help to bring a notepad to your appointment, to write down any answers or additional information. You can then reread this afterwards.

These questions have been written from the perspective of a patient and are not an exhaustive list. There may be additional questions that you may also want to ask that are important to you. Some questions may be personal and difficult to ask, your medical team will be used to answering these and will be happy to help. 

Don’t worry if you don’t get to ask all of your questions at once, or if you think of further questions, you may be appointed a key worker within your medical team who will be your main point of contact. They will be able to help answer the questions you have, or refer you to someone that can help.

Here are some questions you can ask about:

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Diagnosis

• What type of brain tumour do I have?
• What grade is my brain tumour? And what does this mean?
• What size is my brain tumour?
• Where is my brain tumour located?
• What support services are available to me and my family/friends/carers?
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Treatments

• What treatments are available to me?
• What are the risks and benefits of these treatments?
• What are the possible side effects of treatment, both long and short term?
• Are there any biomarker tests available to me?
• How often will I have to come to hospital for treatment?
• Is there any transport or help with cost of fares to the hospital?
• When should I start treatment?
• Are there any clinical trials available to me?
• Will any treatments prevent me from being able to take part in a clinical trial in the future?
• What is the likelihood of my tumour recurring? If this occurs what treatment options will be available to me?
• How do I go about getting a second opinion if I would like one?

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My healthcare team

• Who are the people that make up my healthcare team, and what do each of them do?
• Who will be in charge of my overall treatment and follow up care?
• Who should I call if I have any questions or problems?

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Lifestyle

• How will my brain tumour and treatments affect my daily life? Will I still be able to work, do housework etc.?
• Could treatment affect my fertility? If so should I speak to fertility specialist before it begins?
• Do you have any reading materials that will help me understand my condition, treatments and the support available to me?

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After treatment

• Will I be able to return to work?
• How long after treatment will I be able to return to my usual daily activities
  
• After treatment what follow up tests will I need?
• What will happen at my follow up appointments?
• How often will I need to have a scan?
• What should I do if I am worried in between my appointments?

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Get support

We may also be able to answer some of your questions about diagnosis and living with a brain tumour. So, if you’d like to talk to someone, please get in touch with our Support Team and we’ll be happy to help you.

You can find contact info below: