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Primary tumors can develop in the central nervous system, but most often brain and spinal tumors are metastatic, mainly lung, kidney, breast, and melanoma. A brain tumor is a mass of tissue that should not be in the skull because it has no place there. The disease may manifest itself as visual and speech disorders as well as changes in the patient’s psyche.
What is a brain tumor?
A tumor that develops in the brain is a mass of tissue for which there is no place in the skull – a rigid bone structure with a limited and defined capacity. Therefore, the tumor compresses the nervous tissue of the brain, causing symptoms characteristic of its location (so-called focal symptoms) and causes an increase in intracranial pressure, which is manifested, among others:
- headache
- nausea
- constant feeling of sleepiness
- vomiting
- imbalance,
- vision problems,
Focal symptoms of a brain tumor
A very common symptom of brain cancer are also epileptic seizures caused by irritation.
Focal symptoms may appear in the form of:
– changes in the psyche, personality and behavior of the patient in the case of tumors located in the frontal lobe of the brain;
– speech disorders, when the tumor grows in the temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere;
– visual disturbances when the occipital lobes are involved;
– motor paresis and sensory disturbances with pressure on the appropriate centers of the motor and sensory cortex in the parietal and frontal lobes.
Types of brain tumor
In terms of histopathological structure, a brain tumor may be:
- meningioma,
- glioblastoma multiforme,
- astrocytoma,
- skimpy bootie,
- ependymoma.
These neoplasms may be benign, like most meningiomas, and malignant, with poor prognosis, such as glioblastoma multiforme. Children most often develop astrocytomas and medulloblastomas.
See also: Benign brain tumors – what to look for
Diagnosis of brain tumors
Brain tumor diagnosis is application-based magnetic resonance imagingand the leading therapeutic methods are neurosurgical treatmentsthe aim of which is the maximum removal of the tumor mass with the least possible damage to the surrounding healthy nervous tissue, especially that concentrated in vital centers.
The methods supplementing surgical treatment are:
- teleradiotherapy (using e.g. a gamma knife),
- chemotherapy.
med. Aleksandra Czachowska