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Symptoms of brain tumours: In its first stage a brain tumour causes rather vague symptoms such as nausea, tendency to vomit, severe or mild headache, dizziness, disorder of equilibrum, reduced concentration, changes of personality. As soon as the tumour reaches a certain volume, generally 1,5 cm in diameter, it begins to exert pressure on the surrounding brain. Several neurological symptoms may appear: numbness of an area, loss of eye sight, partial or generalized epileptical fits, ... Sudden appearance of neurological symptoms is always suspect. If your MD has reason to believe that you have a brain tumour, he will direct you immediately to a specialist for further examination. Taking an EEG and a CT or MRI-scan of the brain may confirm the presence of a brain tumour. Classification of brain tumours: Primary brain tumours develop mostly in the supporting tissues of the brain, the so-called glia-cells or astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. These tumours are called glioma, astrocytoma and oligodendrocytoma. The classifications of the most common types is as follows: Astrocytoma 1 : benign, conservation of function Astrocytoma 2 : still benign, fibrillar Astrocytoma 3 : malign, anaplastic Astrocytoma 4 : very malign, necrotic, also called glioblastoma The cerebral membranes can also develop tumours. The so called meningioma are generally benign. Secondary brain tumours are metastases from a cancer in another part of the body. Metastases from lung cancer, breast cancer or kidney cancer appear frequently. In the case of for instance a metastasis of lung cancer the classification remains lung cancer. The causes of primary brain tumours are not fully understood yet. There is an incidence of about 8 / 100.000 people per year. 25 % are children under 16. No connection seems to exist with cultural factors nor with food habits. Secondary brain tumours can, for instance, be the ultimate consequence of lung cancer, and thus smoking. Treatment of Brain Tumours: We would like to emphasise that we feel that treating brain tumours calls for teamwork. A specialized medical team consisting of neurologists, neurosurgeons, radiotherapists, oncologists is of course necessary, but this is not enough. You also will need paramedical and psychosocial assistance during the acute phase in the hospital and during recovery, which may take some time. The standard treatment for a benign tumour is surgery, also called craniotomy, in function of its accessibility and definition. High technology is used by the surgeon: he is navigating in the brain with the help of stereotaxis and mapping, and of course he uses microsurgical techniques. Cells are tested by neurostimulation. If the tumour can be resected intirely this treatment will be sufficient. In the case of non-accessibility there is a possibility of non-invasive treatment by radiotherapy (linac, gamma-knife). For high grade tumours (3 and 4) the surgeon cannot possibly give the guarantee that all malignant cells are removed. That is why we speak of “recurrent” tumours. They always come back. Generally the surgical treatment is then followed by radiotherapy on the site of the previous tumour and its close surroundings. Also an adjuvant therapy may be started up. PREVIOUS PAGE
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