Brain tumour is a cancerous or non-cancerous mass or growth of abnormal cells in the brain. It can either be primary or secondary.
Basically, the identification depends on how the brain tumour started.
The brain tumour starts in the brain or any part of the brain or related structures.
It is secondary when the tumour is as a result of cancers that have spread to the brain from somewhere else in the body.
Causes Of Brain Tumour
Like many other cancers and tumours, the cause of brain tumour is in most cases unknown.
But there are other risk factors that increase a person’s chance of developing a brain tumour.
While that is true, there are exceptions.
Some persons could be exposed to these risk factors, yet they will not have brain tumour.
Unfortunately, others with no exposure to risk factors could come with reports of this condition.
Why is this so? Science is not able to explain this.
Tumours in the brain could be benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer).
When it begins to cause so much trouble is when it becomes cancer.
You see, the cells in your body grow old or become damaged. They die and new cells take their place.
However, that is not always the case. Things could go wrong and this orderly process will break down.
When this happens abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply when they should not.
As a result, some experts say cancer is a genetic disease.
This means that changes to genes that control the way your cells function, especially how they grow and divide, could trigger cancer.
Could Be Inherited
Some of the genetic changes that cause cancer can happen because of errors that occur as cells divide.
It can happen as a result of damage to DNA caused by harmful substances in the environment.
Some of these are chemicals in tobacco smoke and ultraviolet rays from the sun.
Also, cancer could be inherited from our parents.
Brain tumour is common in children and older persons, although people of any age can develop it.
Basically, the body normally eliminates cells with damaged DNA before they turn cancerous. But the body’s ability to do so goes down as we age. This is part of the reason there is a higher risk of cancer later in life (1).
With al of that said, cancer issue is complicated.
Risk Factors Of Brain Tumor
As said, there are a few other things that raise a person’s risk of developing a brain tumour.
These are age, gender (men are more likely than women to develop a brain tumour), home and work exposures. This constitutes exposure to solvents, pesticides, oil products, rubber, or vinyl chloride.
They may increase the risk of developing a brain tumour.
Note that there is not yet scientific evidence that supports this possible link.
Other risk factors are family history linked to hereditary genetic factors or conditions, infections, viruses and allergens.
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Also, electromagnetic fields has been fingered as a cause, but studies have not shown any tangible relationship in line with this (2).
Unfortunately, your race and ethnicity could be a risk factor.
For instance, in the US, white people are more likely to develop gliomas but less likely to develop meningioma than black people.
Head injuries and seizures, and N-nitroso compounds are other risk factors of brain tumour.
Symptoms Of Brain Tumour
Some of the terrible symptoms of this kind of tumour or growth in the brain are headaches, feeling or being sick and seizures.
Other symptoms of brain tumour are drowsiness or loss of consciousness, problem with your eyes (blurred vision, floating shapes, tunnel vision), personality and behaviour changes (3).
Furthermore, the symptoms can develop gradually over some months. Also, it could take years to show symptoms if the tumour grows slowly.
If the tumour is growing fast, symptoms could show up quickly over days or weeks.
Note that these symptoms could vary, depending on where they are in the brain. The main areas of the brain include the cerebrum and the cerebellum
Treatments Of Brain Tumour
The treatment of the tumour depends on the location or type.
However, whichever treatment the patient needs to go through, the treatment is often done by a team of professionals.
Other factors that the physicians will consider are the size, type, and grade of the tumour, whether the tumour is putting pressure on vital parts of the brain and if the tumour has spread to other parts of the CNS or body.
Also, doctors consider the possible side effects and the patient’s preferences and overall health.
Here are some of the treatments that work.
Surgery
This is usually the first treatment for a brain tumour.
Here, doctors remove the tumour and some surrounding healthy tissue. This is often the job of a neurosurgeon.
Radiation Therapy
This is the use of high-energy x-rays or other particles to destroy tumour cells.
The target is to slow or stop the growth of a brain tumour.
Medication
Here the target is to use medication to destroy cancer cells.
Administration could be through the bloodstream to reach cancer cells throughout the body.
Also, medication may be given locally, which is when the medication is applied directly to the cancer or kept in a single part of the body.
There are two type of medication that doctors could recommend.
- Chemotherapy
This is the use of drugs to destroy tumour cells. Usually, it stops the tumour cells from growing, dividing, and making more cells.
- Targeted therapy
This is another way doctors use medication to treat cancer.
This therapy is a treatment that targets the tumour’s specific genes, proteins, or the tissue environment that contributes to a tumour’s growth and survival.
This type of treatment blocks the growth and spread of tumour cells and limits the damage to healthy cells.
Alternating Electric Field Therapy
This type of treatment uses a noninvasive portable device that interferes with the parts of a cell that the tumour needs to grow and spread (4).
Also, the brain tumour type determines the kind of treatment that would work better.
Are There Foods For Brain Tumour?
While food may not have scientific backing for brain tumour, there are food items that help lower the growth of cancer cells.
They have the capacity to reduce the spread and as a result, they lower the risk of coming down with some forms of cancer.
A study says adequate vegetables and antioxidants (such as vitamins C and A) provided with a diet could have a protective effect, while other factors have shown no correlation with the incidence of glioma.
Furthermore, it says maintaining proper body weight and undertaking a sufficient level of daily physical activity also seem to be important (5).
Studies also say that fruits and vegetable contain compounds that lower your risk of tumour.
Some of the vegetables to add to your diet are broccoli, tomatoes, garlic and carrot. These vegetables are rich in antioxidants that inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
Other items to add to your diet to lower risk are beans (red kidney beans), berries, cinnamon, nuts, Olive oil, Turmeric, Citrus and flaxseed.
According to studies, these food items contain antioxidants, vitamins and other minerals that help fight inflammation which has been linked to cancer growth (6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 11).
The bottom line is that a healthy lifestyle will go a long way to keep you healthy.
Eat healthy exercise regularly, get enough sleep and lower stress level.