Why do tumours attack the brain?

brain tumour

The brain is no more prone to tumours than are body’s other main organs, but when abnormal growths attack the brain they are often difficult to counter.

Not all brain tumours are malignant; inf act, about half, know as primary growths, are benign, But they are all serious. The brain is compact organ, encased within the skull and without much room to move. If that weren’t so, the brain would be under repeated excessive sports and other vigorous activities. A tumour growing in or on the brain causes pressure; brain tissue may be compressed against other tissue, against the various layers of the meningeal membrane or against the skull itself.

At first, a victim may suffer mild headaches. These often become rapidly more server. Vision may become blurry in once or both eyes, leading to blindness. Sometimes,hearing and sense of smell are lost or change radically. Anybody suffering constant headaches should see a doctor immediately.

A doctor told of these symptoms will give the patient a series of tests, usually of the reflexes and muscles. The doctor can test, but without the benefit of modern diagnostic devices that are available usually only in hospitals he cannot peer into the brain, If a tumour is suspected, the patient will need specialist help. In recent years, new techniques, such as magnetic  resonance imaging (MRI), have revolutionised examinations of the brain and other organs. An MRI brain scan produces sharp, cross-sectional images that pinpoint abnormalities that would otherwise go undetected.

Once specialists have located a tumor they will decide whether or not it can be removed. In many cases, it can. Two basic problems occur: one is whether the tumour is accessible and can be removed without damaging the brain; the other is whether the tumour is benign or malignant, which nobody can tell for certain until the growth is removed and tested.

Benign growths are usually more clearly defined, and the chances of their successful removal are much higher, especially when on the brain’s outer surface. Cancerous growths often extend far into the brain’s tissue, and the outlook in these cases is less hopeful: fewer than one five patients survive for a year after the diagnosis of this kind of caner.

Even when growths are inaccessible, methods exist to shrink them. In one,a computer-guided laser needle vaporizes the tumour. Others bombard a growth with radiation or anti tumour chemicals. Serious as brain tumours undoubtedly are, victims can take hope. Areas of the brain that yesterday were beyond the bounds of surgery have now become routinely accessible.