Is brain cancer treated? Fight for life!

Cancer - this word sounds like a sentence. For the first time after hearing a terrible diagnosis, the patient thinks that life has already ended. But any person has the ability to hope for the best, and he is looking for an answer to the question: is brain cancer treated? Is it possible to live on with such ailment?

How is brain cancer diagnosed

A brain tumor is a neoplasm that can have a different etiology and differ in class: be primary and secondary.

Primary Tumors

Primary tumors occur in the brain itself, and not metastasize from other organs.

Benign neoplasms differ in localization in one part of the brain, while they do not destroy surrounding tissues, do not give metastases and do not spread through the body of a person.

Benignity of the tumor is determined by slow growth rates. And, as a rule, the symptoms depend on the location. So, it can be expressed in attacks of headaches, epileptic seizures, hearing loss or vision.

Quite often, such tumors occur asymptomatically and are detected accidentally during examination on a magnetic resonance tomograph.

In some cases, removal of the tumor is impossible. For example, in the neighborhood with the vital structures of the brain. Very often after removal, the disease gives a relapse. Then conduct radiation therapy or resection.

Malignant neoplasms

A tumor of this kind is capable of spreading to nearby healthy tissues and destroying them. In brain cancer, pathology has a disastrous effect not only on the brain, but also on other organs and cells of the body.

Malignant tumors grow very quickly and only appear in the last stages, when their removal is not possible. Is brain cancer treated ? Perhaps, with early detection and timely treatment.

Secondary tumors

A secondary tumor is called the spread of cancer cells from other affected organs. Three times more often than the primary, there is a secondary brain cancer. How much live with it depends on how actively the metastases attack the brain.

As a rule, metastases penetrate the brain in case of breast, skin, kidney, lung cancer.

Is brain cancer treated in a secondary process? With this type of chances are negligible, since metastases have already started.

Types of brain tumors

Depending on the location, the following classification of neoplasms exists:

1. Glioma . The tumor develops from the glial cells of the brain. Such a tumor has 4 stages and is most common in men and children. Gliomas include oligodendroglioma, epindimoma and mixed glioma.
2. Meningioma is mainly benign.
3. Medulloblastoma is a malignant form of neoplasms, to which children are mostly exposed.
4. Lymphoma of the central nervous system is a neoplasm of malignant etiology, which affects the lymphatic system.
5. Pituitary tumor - adenoma. A tumor with a benign course.
6. Tumor of the pineal body, epiphysis. Malignant neoplasm, which makes itself felt only in 4 stages, when it is impossible to perform a resection operation. Is it possible to cure brain cancer in such a course? The chances of recovery are small.
7. Hemangioblastoma - lesions of blood vessels with benign neoplasms.
8. Neurinoma - defeat of the auditory nerve with a benign tumor.
9. Tumors of the spinal cord.

Causes of brain cancer

The exact causes of brain cancer have not been established so far, but there are a number of factors that raise the risk of developing it. These include:

1. Floor. Men are sick more often than women.
2. Age. Most often, the brain tumor can be observed in people for 65. It is characteristic that children at risk are also under the age of 8 years.
3. Ethnicity. In comparison with others, representatives of the European race are 2 times more likely to have cancer. For example, glioma is typical for people with white skin.
4. Health status. An important reason for the occurrence of brain cancer is a disease of the immune system. For example, HIV infection, organ and tissue transplantation, conditions after chemotherapy.
5. Chemical substances. People working in harmful industries suffer from brain tumors much more often.
6. Heredity. The risk of getting sick is increased if one of the relatives had brain cancer.
7. Environment and radiation. People working with radioactive materials fall into the risk group for neoplasms. Researchers recently concluded that the development of brain tumors can be affected by household appliances and the proximity of high-voltage power lines, since they generate electromagnetic fields that can change the structure of cells.

But cellular and mobile phones are recognized as safe and do not affect the structure of gray matter.

How is the cancer of the brain

What does brain cancer look like and how does it manifest itself? Symptoms of brain cancer are varied and depend on the location of the tumor. At primary (focal) signs of the disease, the brain tissues are compressed and destroyed in the area of neoplasm.

When the tumor progresses, there is a general cerebral symptomatology, in which hemodynamics is broken and intracranial pressure rises.

Focal Symptoms

Distinguish the following lesions, which depend on the localization of the process:

1. Motor disorders in the form of paralysis and paresis. There is a decrease in muscle activity, a violation of limb functions.
2. Disturbance of sensitivity. In man, it decreases or disappears altogether. He does not react to external stimuli: cold, pain or tactile touch. Very often there is a violation of the ability to determine the position of the limbs relative to the body.
3. Violation of speech and hearing recognition. Occurs when the auditory nerve is affected.
4. Epileptic seizures. Observed with stagnant foci of excitation in the cerebral cortex.
5. Visual impairment. When squeezing a tumor of the optic nerve or its location near the quadruple, partial or complete loss of vision occurs.
6. Violation of speech. Absence or partial presence of slurred speech.
7. Hormonal imbalance.
8. Vegetative disorders: fatigue, constant fatigue, dizziness, pressure and pulse fluctuations.
9. Coordination disorder. When the cerebellum affects the gait, the patient can not make precise movements.
10. The memory is broken, irritability appears, the character changes. With the progression of the process, a complete disorientation in time and loss of one's personality occurs.

General cerebral symptoms

Symptoms occur due to increased intracranial pressure and squeezing the brain tumor.

1. Headache. They are permanent and intense and hardly ever stop.
2. Nausea and vomiting persecute the patient constantly, as there is a constant squeezing of the vomiting center in the middle brain.
3. Dizziness appears at tumor pressure on the cerebellum.

Treatment of brain cancer

All patients, acting with such a diagnosis in the hospital, are asked: Is brain cancer treated? Qualitative treatment implies a complex of costly technological clinical measures. Not in all cases, unfortunately, it is curable. It all depends on the degree of brain cancer and its kind.

Symptomatic treatment

These groups of drugs greatly alleviate the condition of the patient, but do not eliminate the main cause of the disease.

1. Sedatives.
2. Glucocortecosteroids help to reduce cerebral symptoms.
3. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs help with pain relief.
4. Narcotic analgesics are used for severe pain syndrome, vomiting and psychomotor agitation.
5. Antiemetic drugs.

Surgery

This is the most effective way to treat cancer. The neurosurgeon doctor excises the tumor in healthy tissues. Is it possible to cure brain cancer? Everything depends on the location and stage of the tumor. Practically, the operation is effective only in 1 stage. In the next stages of the disease, the tactics of treatment are different. In particular, radiotherapy is used.

Radiation therapy

Is brain cancer treated with radiation therapy? Of course, after all, such therapy is necessary to stop the growth of pathological cells. It is also performed before and after surgery.

Chemotherapy

Usually, such treatment is prescribed when the tumor has the last stage and is inoperable. The dose and type of specific drugs for each patient are calculated individually.

Forecast

Is brain cancer treated? It is treated, but only with timely detection. After the course of treatment, recovery occurs in 60-80%. If a person comes too late, the chance of recovery is less than 30%.