Brain Tumor : Symptoms & Diagnosis

A brain tumor is a disease that forms when your brain starts to create abnormal cells; these cells can be cancerous or non-cancerous. Those abnormal cells can form by two major tumor types; one is your primary brain tumor, and the second is your secondary brain tumor. 

What is the difference between primary and secondary tumors?

The list is long when it comes to differentiating between those two, but the simplest way to understand is that primary start to form inside the brain only. While your secondary brain tumor happens if you have cancer and those cancer cells get to your mind and form those abnormal cells.

Types of brain tumor

Different types of tumors can develop in different ways and from different cells.

Primary brain tumor

Like we know that it can be cancerous or non-cancerous, it forms in your Brian only and cannot spread anywhere else. It can develop from you;

• Glands
• Nerve cells
• Brain cells
• Membrane

Gliomas

This is one of the most common types to occur in adults. It mostly forms from glial cells, but in that also, there are different types of glial cells that it can develop from;

• Astrocytic tumors in the cerebrum.
• Oligodendroglial in the temporal lobe.
• Glioblastoma tumor, in the brain tissue.

Some other primary brain tumors that develop are;

• Pituitary gland
• Ependymomas
• Craniopharyngioma
• Primary central nervous system
• Pineal gland
• Meningioma tumor. It’s as typical as the Gliomas in the adults.
• Primary germ cell tumors
• Schwannomas, this tumor, and meningioma occur during your 40 to 70 years of age.

Secondary brain tumor

This is one of the tumors that doesn’t form in your brain and comes from some other body part. They can develop from;

• Breast Cancer
• Kidney Cancer
• Skin Cancer
• Lung Cancer

Symptoms

There are many symptoms when you have a brain tumor, some are common, and some occur very rarely.

Headache

Headache is the most common symptom, and the worst as well in be a tumor, it can occur any random time without any notice. It’s worse when you wake up and can even disturb your sleep.

Vomiting

Another common symptom is that you will feel dizzy and nauseous, and you will vomit a lot.

Blurred vision

In most cases, the vision of a person starts to blur out, and sometimes he even sees two images of the same person or object. These symptoms look like the person is drunk, but it can also be a symptom of a brain tumor.

Seizures

The Brain tumor can also occur seizures, it’s like a swift current flowing into your brain, and that can affect your behavior, brain, etc. It’s like you start to get lots of mood swings and can even go into a state of confusion where not many things will make sense to you.

Mental functioning

This symptom might not seem conventional, but most of the time, your brain stops functioning properly. You might get suddenly lost while doing something. It can also leave you in a state of confusion, just like seizures.

Other symptoms

• Weakness
• Clumsiness
• Memory loss
• Difficulty in reading to writing
• Uncontrollable movements
• Loss of balance
• Numbness
• Dizzy feeling
• Unable to hear
• Lost consciousness
• Mood swings
• Personality disorders

Diagnosis of Brain Tumor

You can diagnose the brain tumor by different methods like physical exams and other kinds of tests.

Skull X-ray

A skull X-ray can give you detail about your calcium deposits, and in brain tumors, sometimes the calcium deposits move through the blood to your bones.

CT scan

CT scan is considered one of the most detailed scans; it’s better than an x-ray and gives you almost every detail about a human brain inside.

MRI

MRI scan is considered better than a CT scan as it doesn’t use the radiation and gives you a picture of the inside of your brain with almost every detail, so this can determine well whether you have a tumor or not.

Biopsy

A Neuropathologist can make this diagnosis, and it will determine whether you have a brain tumor or not and also will look if it’s formed in your brain or it traveled from another body part.

Treatments for Brain Tumor

Many treatments can get used to cure the disease and help you, these treatments considered the best ones to be known yet, and you can have a more detailed version here.

Surgery

Surgery in simple terms is the removal of your brain tumor from your brain; it can be risky though there are high chances of losing life as well. In most small brain tumors, surgery is a somewhat successful option, but if it grows more massive, it becomes a necessity.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses the radiation of X-ray and other practicals to destroy the disease. It can also get used to stop the growth or slow it as well.

Medication

The medication is another way to provide a way to cure your brain tumor. It can be a somewhat effective way to destroy cancer if it’s not severe.