What are brain tumors?

Causes and Symptoms

The earliest symptom of a brain tumor may be a persistent headache, although this symptom does not necessarily stem from a brain tumor. Nevertheless, when headaches occur regularly, it is essential that the cause be investigated as early as possible and a diagnosis made.

As brain tumors continue to grow and crowd the brain, other symptoms become evident. Even though such tumors are frequently benign, they can become disabling. As brain tissue and the nerve tracks inside the skull are compressed by the incursion that such tumors make on them, patients may suffer muscle weakness, dizziness, loss of vision, reduction of hearing, nausea, speech problems, emotional problems, disorientation, and sometimes seizures.

Brain tumors can, but rarely, enhance mental functioning. Nearly always, they cause impairment across a range of mental aptitudes. Memory loss is common, as are unexplained mood swings. A tumor that grows so that it restricts the flow of cerebrospinal fluid will cause an additional condition, hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus, also known as “water on the brain,” is when the cerebrospinal fluid flows into brain tissue itself. This swelling quickly becomes painful and is lethal if not reduced.

The incidence of brain tumors is small, representing about 1.3 percent of cancers diagnosed in the United States in a given year. Two age groups are at greater risk than the general population. Adult males between fifty-five and sixty-five years of age seem to be vulnerable to primary brain tumors, and children between three and twelve years of age also have a higher incidence of this condition.

The causes of brain tumors have not been fully determined. It has been noted that genetic factors may play a role in the development of such tumors in young people, particularly those with a parent who has had colon
cancer or cancer of the salivary glands or nervous system. Children exposed to high energy radiation applied to the head in the treatment of leukemia
or who develop neck or facial cancers suffer an increased risk of developing brain tumors.

Among adults, those whose work exposes them to vinyl chloride have a high incidence of brain tumors, as do those whose work involves exposure to lead in such industries as mining, printing, and chemical industries. Those who suffer from epilepsy are at higher risk of developing gliomas, tumors arising from brain substance, some 60 percent of which are malignant. The risk seems less in people whose diets include little fat and refined sugar and plentiful fresh fruits and vegetables.

Many brain tumors develop from tissues within the skull, but others result from the metastasis, or spread of cancer cells from malignancies elsewhere in the body, often the lungs or breasts. Of the 170,000 Americans who develop lung cancer annually, about 55,000 will also develop brain tumors. Adults who have had organ transplants are also at increased risk.

Treatment and Therapy

Where a brain tumor—malignant or benign—exists, the preferred treatment is surgical removal by opening the skull. Such delicate surgery is performed by a neuro-oncological surgeon who understands the brain’s contours and their relationship to the nervous system and spinal cord.

Such diagnostic tools as computed tomography (CT) scanning and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can determine the extent of a brain tumor before a decision is made about how to treat the condition. Sometimes surgery is not indicated because the tumor is embedded in vital areas of the brain that would be irreparably damaged by removal.

In such cases, radiation may be used initially to shrink the tumor, sometimes to the point that eventually it can be removed surgically. In other cases, it may be possible to remove part of the tumor, thereby releasing the pressure that it exerts on the brain. Partial removal is usually followed by a course of radiation and/or chemotherapy, generally with the expectation that additional surgical removal will occur if the tumor decreases in size.

Corticosteroids have in some cases succeeded in controlling the swelling of tumors so that pressure on the brain is reduced and symptoms are mitigated.

Perspective and Prospects

In the United States, brain tumors do not occur frequently. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2013 there will be about twenty-three thousand new cases of primary brain and other nervous system cancers, and about fourteen thousand deaths related to such cancers. The life of one child in every three thousand in the population ends before age ten because of a primary brain tumor. Some fifteen hundred children are diagnosed every year with brain tumors, most located in the cerebellum, the midbrain, or the optic nerve.

There has been an increase in primary brain tumors among the elderly since 1980, while the percentage of resulting deaths has decreased. In viewing such statistics, one must remember that with advances in medical technology, more people are achieving old age and are developing diseases when, fifty years ago, they would not have still been living.

Advances in cell research and in the development of drugs that control and, in some cases, eliminate specific cancer cells provide encouragement that medical progress is being made consistently. Neuro-oncological surgery has undergone great advances and will likely substantially reduce the threat of human error as sophisticated robotic surgical procedures are developed. Although cancer is still a scourge, recent medical research offers realistic hope of controlling it.

Bibliography:

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