Trigeminal Neuralgia Cancer

Here at Pasadena CyberKnife, we pride ourselves on offering some of the most comprehensive and compassionate cancer therapy options in the greater Pasadena, CA area. One of these conditions that we’re capable of treating in our oncology center is trigeminal neuralgia. Trigeminal neuralgia is considered to be one of the most painful conditions there is. While this may seem unsettling, let us reassure you that we offer some of the most effective and non-invasive treatment options around for this condition. If you’re looking for trigeminal neuralgia surgery, we encourage you to learn about all that we have to offer and schedule a visit with your cancer doctor at our radiation center.

Symptoms and Diagnosis of Trigeminal Neuralgia

While it’s thought that 1 in every 15,000 to 20,000 people suffer from trigeminal neuralgia, the actual numbers may be much higher because of repeated misdiagnosis. Pain caused by the trigeminal nerve is often overlooked or even dismissed as just a severe headache or toothache. While it’s most frequently seen in individuals over the age of 50, it can also occur in children as young as three years old. If you notice any of the following symptoms, you may want to get checked out for trigeminal neuralgia:

  • Intense facial pain in a focused spot
  • Pain in a wider pattern in any of the areas that the trigeminal nerve supplies (jaw, cheeks, lips, teeth, gums)
  • Occasional twinges of pain that are similar to electric shocks
  • Pain that lasts from a few seconds to hours many times during the day
  • Pain that can be triggered by innocuous actions or even nothing at all
  • Pain episodes that get more frequent and severe over time

The symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia can vary significantly from person to person, which is why it’s so important to visit your radiation center for a diagnosis. During a visit to your oncology center, your cancer doctor will typically make a diagnosis based on certain tests. A neurological exam including reflex tests and a detailed analysis of the area of pain as well as the type of episodes suffered will try to rule out other causes of pain (like a compressed nerve). An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) can help determine if the underlying cause of the condition is a tumor or multiple sclerosis.

Trigeminal Neuralgia Surgery

In many radiation centers, trigeminal neuralgia surgery is the treatment option for trigeminal neuralgia. However, our oncology center offers an alternative to surgery with CyberKnife, one of the most effective, precise, and non-invasive treatment options for trigeminal neuralgia. Our cancer treatment delivers high doses of radiation with pinpoint accuracy, sparing the healthy tissue in cancerous, as well as non-cancerous, conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia.

While trigeminal neuralgia surgery may use Gamma knife, which requires a painful and very uncomfortable frame to be screwed into a patient’s skull, we use CyberKnife for cancer therapy, which utilizes advanced image guidance and intelligent tracking software to treat this disease with extreme precision and without the need of a head frame. Some of the top doctors for trigeminal neuralgia use this revolutionary system to for cancer treatment. This is the world’s first and only dedicated robotic radiosurgery designed to treat a range of conditions throughout the body in a non-invasive manner.

Patient Testimonial

One patient of ours had been suffering from one-sided facial pain for over a year. This extreme pain had resulted in an inability to eat, causing her to lose 65 pounds and hardly be able to walk. She underwent our non-invasive trigeminal neuralgia treatment and experienced a 90% reduction of pain. Now pain-free for over four months, she had this to say about her experience:

“I am very satisfied with the CyberKnife radiosurgery.  I had not been able to eat and sometimes not even been able to talk over the past 16 months of having TN.  I lost 65 lbs, not because I wanted to, but because I couldn’t eat. I can eat now after a couple of weeks post-treatment and have put on 5 lbs.  I could hardly walk very far before and now I can walk just fine.  I couldn’t wear my bottom dentures before and now I can.  All is going just fine.” ~ B

Visit Our Pasadena Radiation Center for Your Cancer Therapy!

If you’re looking to schedule an appointment with your cancer doctor for cancer treatment in Pasadena, we invite you to give us a call at (626) 768-1021. If you have any questions about trigeminal neuralgia surgery or any of our other services at our oncology center, please don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know. We’re looking forward to seeing you!