Cancer - this word sounds like a sentence. For the first time after hearing a terrible diagnosis, the patient thinks that life has already ended. But it is common for any person to hope for the best, and he is looking for the answer to the question: is brain cancer being treated? Is it possible to live on with such an ailment?
How brain cancer qualifies
A brain tumor is a neoplasm that can have a different etiology and vary in class: be primary and secondary.
Primary tumors
Primary tumors arise in the brain itself, and do not metastasize from other organs.
Benign neoplasms are localized in one part of the brain, while they do not destroy surrounding tissues, do not give metastases and do not spread throughout the human body.
Benign tumor is determined by slow growth. And, as a rule, the symptoms depend on the location. So, this can be expressed in attacks of headaches, epileptic seizures, decreased hearing or vision.
Quite often, such tumors are asymptomatic and are detected by chance during examination on a magnetic resonance imager.
In some cases, removal of the tumor is not possible. For example, in the vicinity of vital brain structures. Very often, after removal, the disease gives a relapse. Then, radiation therapy or resection is performed.
Malignant neoplasms
A tumor of this kind can spread to nearby healthy tissues and destroy them. In brain cancer, pathology has a detrimental effect not only on the brain, but also on other organs and cells of the body.
Malignant tumors grow very quickly and make themselves felt only in the last stages, when their removal is not possible. Is brain cancer treated? Perhaps with early detection and timely treatment.
Secondary tumors
The secondary tumor is called the spread of cancer cells from other affected organs. Three times more often than primary, secondary brain cancer occurs. How much they live with it depends on how actively metastases attack the brain.
As a rule, metastases penetrate the brain with cancer of the breast, skin, kidneys, lungs.
Is brain cancer treated in the secondary process? With this form, the chances are negligible, since metastases have already gone.
Types of Brain Tumors
Depending on the location, there is the following classification of neoplasms:
- Glioma A tumor develops from glial cells of the brain. Such a tumor has 4 stages and is most often found in men and children. Gliomas include oligodendroglioma, epindymoma and mixed glioma.
- Meningioma is mainly benign.
- Medulloblastoma is a malignant form of neoplasms, which mainly affects children.
- Lymphoma of the central nervous system is a neoplasm of a malignant etiology that affects the lymphatic system.
- The pituitary tumor is an adenoma. A tumor with a benign course.
- Tumor of the pineal body, pineal gland . A malignant neoplasm, which makes itself felt only at 4 stages, when it is impossible to perform a resection operation. Is it possible to cure brain cancer with this course? The chances of recovery are small.
- Hemangioblastomas - lesions of blood vessels by benign neoplasms.
- Neurinoma - damage to the auditory nerve by a benign tumor.
- Spinal cord tumors.
Causes of Brain Cancer
The exact causes of brain cancer have not yet been established, but there are a number of factors that highlight the increased risk of its occurrence. These include:
- Floor. Men get sick more often than women.
- Age. Most often, a brain tumor can be observed in people over 65. It is characteristic that children under 8 are at risk.
- Ethnicity. Compared with others, representatives of the Caucasian race are 2 times more likely to get cancer. For example, glioma is characteristic of people with white skin.
- Health status. An important cause of brain cancer is a disease of the immune system. For example, HIV infection, organ and tissue transplantation, conditions after chemotherapy.
- Chemical substances. People working in hazardous industries suffer brain tumors much more often.
- Heredity. The risk of getting sick increases if one of the relatives had brain cancer.
- Environment and radiation. People working with radioactive materials are at risk for neoplasms. Researchers recently came to the conclusion that the development of brain tumors can be influenced by household appliances and the proximity of high voltage power lines, as they generate electromagnetic fields that can alter the structure of cells.
But cell and mobile phones are recognized as safe and do not affect the structure of gray matter.
How does brain cancer manifest
What does brain cancer look like and how does it manifest? Symptoms of brain cancer are diverse and depend on the location of the tumor. With primary (focal) signs of the disease, compression and destruction of brain tissue in the neoplasm occurs.
When the tumor progresses, cerebral symptoms appear, in which hemodynamics are disturbed and intracranial pressure rises.
Focal symptoms
The following lesions are distinguished, which depend on the localization of the process:
- Movement disorders in the form of paralysis and paresis. There is a decrease in muscle activity, impaired limb function.
- Violation of sensitivity. In humans, it decreases or disappears altogether. It does not respond to external stimuli: cold, pain or tactile touch. Very often there is a violation of the ability to determine the position of the limbs relative to the body.
- Speech and hearing impairment. Occurs with damage to the auditory nerve.
- Epileptic seizures. Observed with stagnant foci of excitation in the cerebral cortex.
- Visual impairment. When the tumor is squeezed by the optic nerve or located near the quadruple, partial or complete loss of vision occurs.
- Speech impairment. Absence or partial presence of slurred speech.
- Hormonal imbalance.
- Autonomic disorders: fatigue, constant fatigue, dizziness, fluctuations in pressure and pulse.
- Disorder coordination. When the cerebellum is affected , the gait changes, the patient cannot make precise movements.
- Memory is broken, irritability appears, character changes. With the progression of the process comes complete disorientation in time and loss of self.
Cerebral symptoms
Symptoms arise due to increased intracranial pressure and compression of the brain by a tumor.
- Headache. They are constant and intense and practically do not stop.
- Nausea and vomiting haunts the patient constantly, as there is a constant compression of the vomiting center in the midbrain.
- Dizziness appears when the tumor presses on the cerebellum.
Brain cancer treatment
All patients, admitted to the hospital with such a diagnosis, ask themselves: is brain cancer treated? High-quality treatment implies a complex of expensive technological clinical measures. Not in all cases, unfortunately, it is curable. It all depends on the degree of brain cancer and its type.
Symptomatic treatment
These groups of drugs significantly alleviate the condition of the patient, but do not eliminate the main cause of the disease.
- Sedatives.
- Glucocortecosteroids help reduce cerebral symptoms.
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs help with pain relief.
- Narcotic analgesics are used for severe pain, vomiting and psychomotor agitation.
- Antiemetic drugs.
Surgery
This is the most effective way to treat cancer. A neurosurgeon dissects a tumor through healthy tissues. Can brain cancer be cured? It all depends on the location and stage of the tumor. In practice, the operation is effective only in stage 1. At the next stages of the disease, the treatment tactics are different. In particular, radiation therapy is used.
Radiation therapy
Is brain cancer treated with radiation? Of course, after all, such therapy is necessary to stop the growth of pathological cells. It is also performed before and after surgery.
Chemotherapy
Typically, such treatment is prescribed when the tumor has a last stage and is inoperable. The dose and type of specific drugs for each patient are calculated individually.
Forecast
Is brain cancer treated? It is treated, but only with timely detection. After undergoing treatment, recovery occurs in 60-80%. If the person turned too late, then the chance of recovery is less than 30%.