Table of contents:
1-What is brain metastasis?
2-What are the causes of brain metastasis?
3-What are the symptoms?
4-How is the diagnosis?
5- Can it be prevented?
6-What is the treatment?
What is brain metastasis?
Brain metastasis is a type of cancer that starts in any part of the body and spreads to the brain. That is, when cancer cells spread and generate one or more tumors in the brain.
Although any type of cancer can develop brain metastasis, there are some with which it occurs more frequently. These are melanoma, lung, breast and renal carcinoma.
In contrast, there are some types of cancer that rarely spread to the brain, such as colon or prostate cancer.
In addition, there is a type of metastasis that has an unknown site of origin and is known as cancer of unknown primary origin.
What are the causes of brain metastasis?
Brain metastasis is generated when the affected cells break off and spread from their original site. These cancerous cells travel through the bloodstream and reach the brain, where in some cases they multiply.
Metastatic brain tumors occur in 25% of cases and are much more frequent than primary brain tumors, that is, tumors that originate in the brain in the first place.
What are the symptoms?
When one or several tumors are generated in the brain and it increases in size, inflammation and intracranial pressure is produced, which ends up affecting the brain tissues.
This generates certain signs such as headache, personality changes, memory loss or seizures. In addition, in some cases there is decreased coordination, fever, indisposition and slurred speech.
However, the symptoms of metastasis present differently in each patient and vary according to the location and size of the tumor.
How is the diagnosis made?
There are some cases of brain metastases that are very difficult to diagnose early because they do not present symptoms until they are very large. However, there are multiple tests that demonstrate changes in the brain and nervous system.
The tests that can be performed in case of suspected metastases are:
– Mammography or CT scan to look for the origin of the primary tumor.
– MRI of the brain: to locate the tumor in the brain.
– Test of the tissue removed from the tumor or biopsy to confirm what type of tumor it is.
– Spinal tap or lumbar puncture
Can it be prevented?
There are no known measures to prevent a brain tumor, but it is recommended to avoid unnecessary radiation, contact with chemicals and harmful carcinogenic substances.
Metastatic brain tumors occur in 25% of cases.
occur in 25% of cases
What is the treatment?
The treatment of brain metastases involves various approaches such as drugs, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
In many cases the treatment focuses on relieving symptoms but may also seek to slow the growth of the tumors. The “cure” in cases of brain metastasis is very complicated, and in many cases the brain tumors even recur.
Medications:
There are steroid medications that are often used to relieve inflammation and reduce pain or symptoms. In addition, when seizures have occurred, the physician may indicate the need to administer anticonvulsant drugs.
Surgery:
Surgery generally seeks to remove tumors in the brain, if they are in an accessible location. Surgical intervention carries some complications and risks, such as neurological deficit, infections or bleeding.
Radiotherapy:
This type of technique seeks to annul the affected cells. There are different types of radiotherapy for cases of brain metastasis: on the one hand, whole brain radiation, which is associated with long-term cognitive decline, and on the other hand, stereotactic radiosurgery, which provides more intense radiation on the brain tumor but less strong at a general level.
Chemotherapy:
Uses very strong drugs to destroy fast-growing cancer cells.
Immunotherapy:
It uses the patient’s immune system to fight the disease. In many cases cancer is able to develop easily because the diseased cells manage to “hide” from the immune cells. What immunotherapy seeks to do is to interfere with this process.