Questions to Ask the Doctor

Regular communication with your doctor is important in making informed decisions about your health care. Consider asking the following questions of your doctor:

• What type of meningioma do I have? Is it cancerous?
  
  
• What is the grade of the tumor? What does this mean?
  
  
• How many patients with this type of tumor do you treat each year?
  
  
• Do you attend expert meetings to discuss complicated tumor cases? What kinds of specialists attend such meetings?
  
  
• Who will be part of my health-care team, and what role does each person have?
  
  
• Can you explain my pathology report to me?
  
  
• Will an experienced neuropathologist (a doctor who specializes in the diagnosis of diseases of the nervous system by studying tissue under a microscope) review my pathology slides?
  
  
• What treatment options do I have?
  
  
• What clinical trials are open to me?
  
  
• What treatment do you recommend? Why?
  
  
• Should I get a second opinion?
  
  
• Are there CNS tumor centers of excellence that you recommend?
  
  
• Are you willing to follow my case if I have my treatments provided in another center?
  
  
• What are the possible side effects of this treatment, both in the short term and the long term?
  
  
• How will this treatment affect my daily life? Will I be able to work, exercise, and perform my usual activities?
  
  
• Do you work with a social worker that assists patients with CNS tumors?
  
  
• Do you know of a local support group for patients with CNS tumors?
  
  
• Do you have reading material that would help me understand my disease?
  
  
• What follow-up tests will I need, and how often will I need them?
  
  
• What support services are available to me? To my family?
  
  
• Who answers patient questions when you are unavailable?