What types of brain tumor are there?
We can distinguish between benign tumors, which are tumors that grow at the base of the skull or compressing the brain from the covers, and tumors that grow inside the brain. These tumors are mostly malignant and have a worse prognosis than those that only compress the brain.
What advanced techniques do we have today in brain tumor surgery?
There have been great changes in the field of neurosurgery; apart from the usual microsurgery, today endoscopic surgery is used mainly for tumors that appear at the base of the skull which, as I said, are benign tumors; this surgery is performed from the nose and can often avoid having to perform what we call a craniotomy.
We have also introduced techniques in the use of intraoperative imaging so that at the time of surgery we can confirm the existence of tumor remnants by means of scanning or magnetic resonance imaging and thus update the intraoperative navigation system, which is like a GPS for performing surgery.
Another field that has revolutionized the results is to monitor the function of the nerves or the brain itself; we can locate the brain areas important for language or movement and thus avoid injuring them or monitor the function of important cranial nerves such as the facial nerve, the hearing nerve, the visual nerves, in order to preserve these functions. We have also benefited from pre-surgical image diagnosis, which allows us to know the location of brain functions also in these images that we have in the intraoperative navigation systems, this is done by means of magnetomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging or tractography.
Fluorescence-guided resection of malignant brain tumors has also been introduced recently. A product is used that is administered to the patient prior to surgery and during surgery by means of special optical systems we can see the normal brain tissue differentiated from the tumor tissue that offers a positive fluorescence image and we can perform a more complete resection.
What are the results after brain tumor surgery?
As we said previously we have to differentiate between benign and malignant tumors. In benign tumors the cure rate is very high, practically all of them achieve at least a control of tumor growth, although it is true that in some cases, between 5 and 8% of cases, there may be recurrence of this tumor and require new long-term treatments. These patients can return to their daily life 10 to 15 days after surgery, maximum in one month.
In the case of malignant tumors the prognosis is more serious and we achieve cures in some but the majority of highly malignant tumors have a survival of between 18 months and two years and their return to normal life is delayed to 3 or 6 months due to the need for complementary treatments such as radiotherapy.
What are the symptoms of brain tumors?
The symptoms of brain tumors vary greatly depending on the area of the brain affected by the tumor. They can be alterations in vision, loss or alterations in hearing, endocrinological diseases if they affect the pituitary gland, alterations in higher functions (reasoning, memory, judgment) or alterations in the movement or in the coordination of that movement. There may also be headaches and seizures of epileptic type or seizures of loss of consciousness.