Symptoms and Complications

Brain cancer causes symptoms when it pushes on the brain that destroys brain tissue. Symptoms depend on the size and location of the tumor, and the speed at which it multiplies. Although headaches are often a symptom of brain cancer, it is important to remember that most headaches are not caused by cancer but are caused by less serious conditions such as migraine or tension. Headaches caused by brain tumors are often severe, associated with nausea and vomiting and often worse early in the day. They can last long or occur intermittently.

Other symptoms include:

* Dizziness
* Impaired vision as double vision
* Impaired coordination
* Weakness or numbness on one side of body
* Seizures
* Changes in mood, senses, personality or feelings
* Impaired memory
* A state of confusion or difficulty concentrating

Many tumor or cancer types can spread to the brain, the most common are lung cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, certain sarcomas, testicular tumors and germ cell and many others. Some cancers only spread to the brain infrequently, such as colon cancer, and others such as prostate cancer almost never spread. Brain tumors can directly destroy brain cells may indirectly damage or inflammation, compressing other parts of the brain as the tumor grows, inducing brain swelling and causing increased intracranial pressure.

The classification of metastatic brain tumors depends on the exact location of the tumor within the brain, the type of tissue involved, original location of the tumor and other factors. Very rarely, a tumor can spread to the brain, although the original site or location of the tumor is unknown, to which is called cancer of unknown primary origin.

Metastatic brain tumors occur in about one quarter of all cancers that metastasize (spread through the body). These tumors are more common than primary brain tumors occur in approximately 10 to 30% of cancers in adults.
Symptoms

• Changes in the sensitivity of a body area
• Decreased coordination, clumsiness, falls
• Emotional instability, rapid emotional changes
• Fever (sometimes)
• General ill feeling
• Headache recent, persistent, and new to the person
• Lethargy
• Memory loss, impaired ability of discernment, calculating deficiencies
• Changes in personality
• Pupils of different size
• Seizures new for the person
• Language difficulties
• Changes in vision, double vision, reduced vision
• Vomiting with or without nausea
• Weakness in one area of the body

Treatment depends on the size and type of tumor, the initial site and the person’s general health. The goals of treatment may relieve symptoms, as well as improve performance and welfare. Often used whole-brain radiation to treat tumors that have spread to this organ, especially if more than one tumor.

You can use the surgery for metastatic brain tumors when a single lesion and when there is no cancer elsewhere in the body. Some tumors can be removed completely. In other cases, when tumors are deep or that infiltrate brain tissue, it can carry out surgical Debulking (removal of much of the mass that makes up the tumor to reduce its size). Surgery may reduce pressure and relieve symptoms in cases where no one can remove the tumor. Chemotherapy for brain metastases is not as helpful as surgery or radiation for many types of cancer.

Drugs for some symptoms of brain tumor may include the following:

• Corticosteroids such as dexamethasone to reduce brain swelling
• Osmotic diuretics such as urea or mannitol to reduce brain swelling
• Anticonvulsants such as phenytoin to reduce seizures
• Analgesics
• Antacids or antihistamines to control stress ulcers

When you find multiple metastases (widespread cancer), treatment may focus primarily on relieving pain and other symptoms. Welfare measures and safety, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other interventions can improve quality of life for patients. Legal advice may help establish advance directives, such as a power of attorney, in cases which are likely to be intellectual or physical deterioration continued.

An examination reveals neurologic changes that are specific to the location of the tumor. Are also common signs of increased intracranial pressure. Some tumors may not show symptoms until they are large, then suddenly cause rapid deterioration of neurological functioning of the person. The original tumor (primary) and can be known or be discovered after an examination of tumor tissue in the brain indicates it is a metastatic type.

• A CT scan or MRI of the head can confirm the diagnosis of brain tumor and identify its location. MRI is usually more sensitive for finding tumors in the brain.
• Cerebral Angiography may be done occasionally. Doing so may show a mass that occupies space, which may or may not be highly vascular (filled with blood vessels).
• Make an X-ray, mammography and computed tomography of chest, abdomen and pelvis, as well as other tests to find the original tumor site.
• An EEG may reveal abnormalities.
• An examination of tumor tissue removed during surgery or CT-guided biopsy is used to confirm the exact type of tumor. If you can locate the primary tumor outside the brain, this tumor is that he and biopsied rather than the brain tumor.
• Sometimes also performed a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to examine the cerebrospinal fluid.

Is usually treated brain cancers by a combined strategy of surgery, chemotherapy (anticancer drugs) and radiation, combined with the administration of drugs to control symptoms. It is frequently administered high doses of steroids to reduce any swelling caused by the tumor. Often this You can use anticonvulsant medications to prevent seizures.

We practice a surgery to excise the cancerous tissue more than possible. Some brain cancers are located in areas that surgeons can not reach without damaging other important parts of the brain. In these cases, it is often preferable not to operate the patient. Even when surgery can not completely excise the tumor, it allows to reduce the size and relieve symptoms, and can optimize the effectiveness of other treatments.

Surgery is usually followed by radiation. Often this intervention does not cure brain cancer, but it allows to control the tumor for months or years. Some types of brain cancers may respond to chemotherapy. It has a collection of different drugs for chemotherapy, and others are currently under study.

The treatment of metastatic cancers (which are spread) depends largely on their region of origin. For example, treating a lung cancer that has metastasized to the brain the same way as other lung cancers. We can handle that part of the cancer that has invaded the brain by irradiation. If metastases are confined to a region of the brain, they are sometimes removed by performing a surgical removal.

Advances in technology provide new treatment options such as using lasers and ultrasound to remove tumors. The stereotactic radiosurgery by “gamma knife” is a new technical option to surgery that uses radiant beams that are directed directly and precisely to the tumor. No need scalpel or incision. These new techniques would perhaps remove more cancerous cells and minimize damage to healthy brain tissue around the tumor, decreasing the number of neurological complications.

It is usually impossible to eliminate all cancerous brain cells. If some of them remain, the cancer may recur. It is hoped that in future, experimental treatments such as radioactive implants (implanted inside tumors) and some new forms of immune therapy or gene therapy allow for better treatment of brain cancer.

The presence of the above symptoms may lead a physician to suspect brain cancer. A CT scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are the first examinations to be performed to properly diagnose a brain cancer, whatever the type. These specialized radiological examinations can detect many types of brain tumors and determine their location and size accurately. However, they do not determine whether the tumor is cancerous or not.

We must perform a biopsy to determine if the tumor is cancerous. For this, we take a sample of the tumor during surgery. If the tumor is too deep in the brain, surgeons can use a technique called Stereotactic biopsy or establishment of the needle through three-dimensional approach. This technique uses an MRI to create a three dimensional image of the brain that are then used to guide a needle contained in a special case to the appropriate region of the brain. It sucks and is collected tumor cells in the needle for analysis. Once collected, we analyze the biopsy sample using microscopes and special chemicals to determine the type of tumor. It usually takes several days before obtaining the results of a biopsy.

We may sometimes collect cells of brain tumors in Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a special fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. CSF samples are taken using a thin needle that is inserted in the lower back under local anesthesia, this procedure is called a lumbar puncture. We can do this procedure when too much pressure accumulates in the brain. Indeed, the pressure change resulting from the brain drain may cause aspiration of part of the brain tissue at the base of the skull, causing serious complications.