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Brain Cancer
Overview of Brain Cancer
Tumors in the brain can be cancerous or non-cancerous however unlike most other tumors in the human body both types are equally serious. In general the severity of brain cancer depends on its location, size and rate of growth and the symptoms experienced by the sufferer differ according to which areas of the brain are compressed and the amount of internal pressure that arises.
There are two main types of brain cancer:
- Primary brain cancer - where the initial tumor develops within the brain.
- Secondary brain cancer – where the initial tumor is elsewhere in the body and cancer of the brain develops when a small section of the initial tumor breaks off and settles in the brain.
Primary brain tumours are not always cancerous however secondary tumors are and so a patient’s prognosis differs according to type.
Risk Factors of Brain Cancer
The causes of brain cancer, as with all other types of cancer, are still to be discovered however there are a few risk factors that make a person more prone to developing the disease. Widespread brain cancer research has shown that primary brain tumors are slightly more common in men and usually develop between the ages of 60 and 70. In reality however primary tumors can develop in anybody at any time.
Secondary brain tumors are much more common than the primary type because they develop as an off-shoot of existing cancer e.g. of the breast or lungs. Thus anybody suffering with any other form of cancer is at risk of developing cancer in the brain.
Signs and Symptoms of Brain Cancer
Brain cancer symptoms usually occur when either a primary or a secondary tumor compresses part of the brain or raises the pressure inside the skull. Thus common symptoms of brain cancer include:
- Headache which is often more severe in the morning and worsens when the sufferer coughs or bends over.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Blurred vision.
Other symptoms can also occur but these tend to be related to the area of brain that is affected by the tumor and include:
- Slurred speech.
- An unsteady gait.
- Double vision.
- Difficulty reading and writing.
- Change in personality.
- Numbness or weakness of the limbs on one side of the body.
- Seizures.
Early symptoms of brain cancer do occur however because they are subtle and can also be caused by tiredness and stress, sufferers tend to ignore them and rarely think anything serious is wrong.
Treatment for Brain Cancer
The type of brain cancer treatment that is offered to a patient depends on a number of factors including whether there is more than one tumor, the precise location of the tumor and the type of brain cell that is affected. Most primary brain tumors can be removed surgically unless they are located deep within the brain structure. Radiotherapy is often used in addition to surgery or as an alternative to it for both cancerous and non-cancerous primary tumors.
Secondary brain cancer normally involves more than one tumor and so surgery is very rarely an option. Radiotherapy and occasionally chemotherapy are used to treat the actual tumor while drug therapy is used to relieve the pressure in the skull and reduce the number of seizures i.e. Dexamethasone and anticonvulsant drugs respectively.
Alternative brain cancer treatments include physiotherapy for the physical affects such as loss of mobility and an unsteady gait and speech therapy for associated speech problems. As more information on brain cancer is gathered then further alternative therapies such as acupuncture and herbal medicine will undoubtedly be used in an effort to reduce the debilitating physical symptoms.
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