Brain tumors comprise a broad and very heterogeneous group of diseases affecting the brain and its related structures. Neurosurgery specialists highlight the great variability of brain tumors, ranging from benign and curable tumors without major complications, to extremely aggressive and malignant processes that are difficult to treat and produce important sequelae and high mortality.
Most frequent brain tumors
Depending on the origin of the different types of cells found in the brain and its surroundings, there is a great variety of brain tumors. Thus, we have tumors of the same cells that form the brain and its nerves:
- Gliomas (they are the most frequent of the “primary” tumors).
- Neurocytomas
- Schwannomas or neurinomas
- Tumors of the membranes that cover the brain or meninges (meningiomas).
- Tumors related to bone structures
- Cysts or pseudotumors
- Tumors of associated glands (pituitary gland tumors).
- Embryonal and primitive tumors
- Tumors associated with blood vessels
Another important group is formed by brain metastases or “secondary” tumors, which are those that have traveled from another organ that has a primary tumor or cancer and have settled in the brain, where they grow again as a tumor.
What are the most frequent symptoms?
The symptoms are due to two situations:
- Intracranial hypertension: increased pressure in the brain in a generalized way, causing headache, vomiting, compromise of consciousness, among others.
- Focal deficit or focal deficit: the deficit resulting from the mass effect and the alteration of the function of the neurons in the vicinity of the site where the tumor is located causes alterations in the motor function of some segment of the body, sensibility, vision, coordination, language, etc. Patients may also have seizures (such as epilepsy) in some cases.
How are these tumors diagnosed?
When the presence of a tumor of this type is suspected, neuro-imaging tests such as CT or CAT scan and MRI are essential for a correct diagnosis, since they allow to know:
- Location of the tumor
- Details of its structure
- Nature of the lesion: benign or malignant; primary or secondary; single or multiple.
The diagnosis of histological certainty will be given definitively by the study of the biopsy of the lesion, which is obtained by means of a neurosurgical procedure specific to each patient.
What is the treatment for brain tumors?
There are various therapeutic modalities to treat these lesions, which must be adapted to the particular type of tumor and to specific patients. In most cases, a neurosurgical procedure will be performed using microsurgical techniques, either to obtain a sample to determine the type of tumor or to perform a wide resection of the tumor.
In cases of tumors located in very delicate areas, patients in unfavorable general conditions for long and complex surgeries, only a biopsy of the tumor performed with stereotaxy techniques (location of the exact point of the lesion with an external frame that allows taking a small sample of the tumor with great precision) will be performed. Subsequently, and depending on the result of the tumor biopsy and the degree of tumor resection, the treatment may be complemented with radiotherapy, radiosurgery and/or chemotherapy in some cases.
What is the prognosis and possible sequelae of this disease?
Because brain tumors are very different entities it is not possible to give a prognosis. For example, most meningiomas have very good prognoses and no major sequelae, but on the other hand, high-grade gliomas or glioblastomas usually have very poor prognoses, even regardless of treatment.
It should be noted that “benign” tumors such as schwannomas can be in very difficult locations within the brain, which also aggravates the prognosis and possible sequelae.