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Famous singer Sheryl Crow has reported that she has been diagnosed with meningioma, the most common type of benign brain tumor. She also admitted that it all started with memory problems. And many of us complain about these – do we have anything to fear?
We asked Anders Cohen, head of the department of neurosurgery and spine surgery at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City, to answer a few questions about brain tumors.
YEARS: Fifty-year-old Sheryl Crow said she had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan done when she had problems with memory. Why do brain tumors cause memory problems?
Anders Cohen: These are typical symptoms that this type of cancer can cause. Generally, tumors that affect memory are found in the left frontal lobe of the brain.
Do such tumors always cause memory problems?
Not. The brain is like immobility. It’s all a matter of location, location and location again. Our brain maps are quite accurate. What symptoms you have depends on where the tumor is in the brain.
Crow said she was not planning surgery. Can you live with a brain tumor?
Such tumors often do not produce any symptoms throughout life. We are now finding more of them because we are looking for them. MRI equipment is now used in an increasing number of medical facilities. But if the tumor is asymptomatic, we leave it alone. You can also observe the patient for six months and repeat the MRI scan. Many meningiomas do not get bigger.
Is surgery the only treatment option?
The vast majority of patients undergo surgery. There is no effective method of chemotherapy. Radiation therapy can be used if the tumors are very deep, if they are close to the brain stem, or if it is risky getting into them alone.
Crow was treated for breast cancer in 2006. I’ve also read that meningiomas are more common in women. Could it be that this tumor is related to her breast cancer or its treatment?
No, breast cancer does not make you more susceptible to meningiomas. Some meningiomas are estrogen-sensitive. Usually they grow very, very slowly. Initially, they may be the size of a pinhead. When women enter the menopause, a hormonal swing occurs and the tumor may begin to grow.
To allay my concerns, besides brain tumors, what other causes for memory problems might be?
Some women who have had breast cancer develop what we call chemo-brains, which are cognitive disorders, which are also seen in children being treated for cancer. Some women also complain of memory problems during menopause or simply due to natural aging.
There are also many medications that cause these kinds of side effects, such as beta-blockers (used to treat heart disease). Antidepressants such as Zoloft and Paxil can slow patients down and make them unable to finish the crossword puzzle. Stress, for example related to work, can also have a similar effect on memory. When patients have to spend several days in a surgical ICU (intensive care unit), even academics become confused.
We are also not evolutionarily adapted to Facebook and Twitter. All this huge amount of information available immediately. Our brains didn’t evolve to do this …
I hear about people suffering from headaches all the time. Although I work with meningiomas, this is not an alarm signal for me. When something is wrong, people immediately think, “I have a brain tumor. I can assure you that most people don’t have it.
Text: Liz Szabo
See also: A ticking bomb in the brain