Brain Tumors - Symptoms and Treatment

How do tumors of the central nervous system occur?

Central nervous system is a very important part of your body. Cancer of the central nervous system occurs when the brain is diagnosed with cancer. The cancer from the brain starts spreading to other parts of the body thus affecting even the central nervous system.

Over the past few decades a number of tests have been carried out to prevent the cancer of the central nervous system. Today you have brain CT scans, MRI etc to help detect cancer of the brain thus making it simple to treat cancer of the brain and preventing it from spreading to other parts of the body. Biopsies of the brain is not required if the cancer has spread from other parts of the body but if the cancer has started from the brain then biopsy of the brain is performed to rule out the spread of cancer to other parts of the body and also to find out which type of cancer it is.

What are the symptoms of brain cancer?

Most of the times people who have been diagnosed with brain tumor have been mistaken for those of stroke victims. The onset of brain tumor is chronic later developing in a large tumor by the time it has been diagnosed. Brain tumor patients often complain about headaches which are persistent, have difficulty in moving around including walking, get easily confused, have difficulties with their speech, and some have also complaints about poor vision.

How brain tumor patients evaluated and what are are the mode of treatments?

Most often brain tumor is diagnosed with the help of CT scans and MRI scans of the brain. The affected part indicating the tumor is sent in for a biopsy and the biopsy is performed under the guidance of a Neurosurgeon.

The mode of treatment here is the removal of the affected part surgically or with the help scanning instrument is used which produces 3D image of the brain thus making the radiation more effective. Chemotherapy may or may not be administered if other methods of treatment are effective.

Brain tumors can be malignant and some of these are very fatal in spite of treatment being administered the growth of the tumor is checked for the time being. Most of the time it has been found that metastasis cancers can be fatal as the growth of cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body thus the treatment may not be successful. In some cases tumor has lead to leukemia in the spinal cord fluid. This is the fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord.

Brain tumors are fatal as the detection of the tumor is not easy and by the time the tumor has been diagnosed cancer has spread and affected almost all the major body organs and destroyed those healthy cells that treatment and the success rate of the treatment is very less so is the survival rate of the patient.