Brain cancer-types,symptoms and treatment

Brain cancers include primary brain tumours, which start in the brain and almost never spread to other parts of the body, and secondary tumours (or metastases), which are caused by cancers that began in another part of the body.

There are more than 40 major types

of brain tumours, which are grouped into two main types: benign and malignant. Benign tumours are slow-growing and unlikely to spread. Common types are meningiomas, neuromas, pituitary tumours and cranio-pharyngiomas. Malignant tumours are cancerous and able to spread into other parts of the brain or spinal cord. Common types include astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, ependymomas, glioblastomas and mixed gliomas.

Screening
There is no routine screening test for brain cancer.

Symptoms and diagnosis
Headaches are often the first symptom of a brain tumour. The headaches can be mild, severe, persistent, or come and go.

Other symptoms include:

difficulty speaking, or remembering words
disturbed vision, hearing, smell or taste
seizures: severe (eg. a convulsion) or mild (as in a fleeting disturbance of awareness, sensation or jerking muscles)
weakness or paralysis in part of the body
loss of balance
general irritability, drowsiness or a change in personality
nausea and vomiting.
 If a brain tumour is suspected, the doctor may check how different parts of the brain are functioning by checking the patient’s reflexes, muscle strength, ability to feel pin-pricks and to distinguish between hot and cold. An opthalmoscope is used to view the optic nerve, which may bulge if the pressure in the skull is raised, for example by a tumour.

Diagnosis is usually by MRI and CT scans.

Other tests that are sometimes used are:

angiogram
magnetic resonance spectroscopy
PET scan
single photon emission CT scan
lumbar puncture (also known as spinal tap).
Staging
MRI and CT scans and other tests (see above), if used, determine the extent of the cancer (its stage).

Brain tumours are usually graded on a scale of I to IV, based on how quickly they are growing and their ability to invade nearby tissue:  grades I and II are the slowest growing and are called low-grade tumours; grade IV is the fastest growing.

Causes
The causes of brain tumours are not known. Some brain and spinal cord tumours are more common in people with certain inherited or genetic conditions, and people exposed to very high doses of radiation.

Prevention
There are no proven measures to prevent brain cancer.

Treatment
Brain tumours may be treated with surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or steroid therapy, or a combination of these treatments.

Some tumours can be removed completely by surgery (craniotomy). Post-operative radiotherapy improves local control and survival. For glioblastomas, temozolomide may be added during or after radiotherapy to further improve outcomes.

If a tumour cannot be removed, the aim of treatment is to slow growth and relieve symptoms by shrinking the tumour and any swelling around it. Treatment options include radiotherapy with or without temozolomide.

source:cancer.org.au