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Last Updated on February 3, 2021
One of the main reasons why cancer is such a frightening disease is that its early symptoms are usually silent. So, if we don’t pay attention to the warning signs, the disease will evolve discreetly and only be diagnosed at an advanced stage – when the odds of treating it are already much lower. Malignant brain tumors (cancerous) are far from being among the most common forms of cancer. But they are dangerous, especially because some of its main symptoms are similar to those of other common ailments. Moreover, benign brain tumors (noncancerous) can also be life-threatening as they can damage the cells around them and apply a huge amount of pressure on nearby tissue. Before discussing some of the brain tumor symptoms that may go unnoticed, let’s learn more about this condition. Brain tumors: To put it simply, a brain tumor is a mass of abnormal cells formed in the brain region. As we have already mentioned, tumors can either be noncancerous or cancerous (benign and malignant, respectively). Cancerous brain tumors may start in the brain (the so-called primary tumors, which only account for about 1.4% of all new cancer cases in the United States). Or, they may start somewhere else in the body and spread to the brain (known as secondary or metastatic tumors) – about 25% of cancer patients develop a metastatic brain tumor. Since primary tumors are named after the cell in which they form first, there are more than a hundred brain tumor types. Gliomas, medulloblastomas, schwannomas, meningiomas, and pituitary adenomas are the most common ones. Brain tumor treatment: Before evaluating the treatment options, it is necessary to identify the type of tumor properly. Treatment will depend on the location, size, and type of tumor and whether or not it has already spread to other areas of the brain (or if it originated in another part of the body). The overall health of the patient and potential complications also need to be thoroughly taken into consideration. Brain tumor surgery is usually the option of choice. However, the location of the cancerous cells can make this treatment unfeasible. In those cases, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and gamma knife therapy are other available alternatives. Brain tumor survival rates vary significantly depending on the type of cancer and the moment of diagnosis. It is not worth mentioning general statistics because they can’t be used to predict the outcome of any individual case.
