Warning Signs Of Brain Tumor

Despite significant advances in cancer research and treatment, one form of cancer - brain tumors - remain particularly feared, and for good reason. Because of their location, brain tumors can severely impact an individual's personality, memories and basic motor skills, robbing the patient of their very being.

Gene therapy approaches involve the insertion of genes into growing brain tumors, rendering them more sensitive to some chemotherapeutic agents that are relatively non-toxic to the rest of the body. Some promising experiments have demonstrated that with insertion of genes into animal brain tumor cells and administration of chemotherapy, complete destruction of the tumor may be possible without spread of the tumor.

 One area showing substantial promise in brain tumor treatment is based on an immunotherapeutic approach; that is, using a patient's immune system as an instrument for cancer therapy. This approach is premised on a body's immune response toward cells bearing tumor markers or antigens. There are many different types of brain tumors. Doctors use a method that is referred to as "Classification".

This is nothing more than grouping the many different types of brain tumors according to the characteristics that they possess. Naturally, each of the tumors that affect the brain are issued a specific names. Acoustic Neuroma is a tumor that directly impacts the nerve that assists in hearing. Individuals that have immune systems that are in a state of malfunction may develop a CNS lymphoma brain tumor. However, individuals that have properly function immune systems have been found to suffer from these types of tumors as well. Typically, these tumors will invade the cerebral hemispheres.

 There are many symptoms that may develop when an individual develops a metastatic brain tumor. These symptoms come as a result of the fact that tumors have the capability of destroying cells in the brain, the inflammation that typically occurs with tumors, and the pressure that the tumor may cause as it grows. The common person hears about someone dying from a brain tumor and then questions why the medical personnel did not pick up on this diagnosis during routine physicals, or that the individual had not noticed any ailments early on and sought medical help before it was too late.

 Another obstacle that prevents a brain tumor from being detected at any earlier stage in that this medical condition often parallels numerous other stressors of the neurological system. It is very important for all of these factors to be taken into consideration as the prognosis and treatment of a brain tumor patient is directly correlated to the diagnosis. 

When it comes to brain tumors, the medical profession does not have a standard system to describe the spread of cancer. Primary brain tumors are usually formed in the central nervous system and invariably they do not spread to other parts of the body. This is another tumor that develops in astrocytes. It grows slowly and has the tendency to spread to the neighboring brain cells. This is a grade II tumor seen mostly in young adults.