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If You Aren’t Aware of Brain Cancer in Your Body, How Do You Know If You Even Have It?

Joyce Hoffman
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I don’t have much experience with brain cancer aside from my first cousin having it as a young teen who died from the tumor a long time ago. So research was needed and the following is what I found.

Brain tumors don’t always cause symptoms. In reality, the most usual brain tumors in adults, meningioma, often evolve so slowly that it goes unseen. Tumors (from some TBIs as well) may not start causing symptoms until they become big enough to intrude upon healthy tissues within the brain.

Johns Hopkins Medicine says there are over 120 brain tumor types, based on the brain tissues they encounter. And not all brain tumors are brain cancer, but even benign  (noncancerous) tumors can be perilous because of their magnitude and/or location.
Very simply, a brain tumor is a evolution of abnormal cells in the brain. Upon examination of the brain, it’s very complex, with distinct parts responsible for different nervous system functions. Brain tumors can evolve in any part of the brain or skull, including its protective lining, the underside of the brain, the brainstem, or the sinuses and the nasal cavity, for example.

In the United States alone, about 30 adults out of 100,000 brain and nervous system  tumors are affected. Brain tumors are hazardous because they can put pressure on thriving parts of the brain or propagate into those areas.

Some brain tumors can also be cancerous or turn out to be cancerous. They can cause difficulties if they restrict the flow of fluid around the brain, which can lead to elevated pressure inside the skull. Some varieties of tumors can spread through the spinal fluid to remote areas of the brain or the spine.

You may read about brain tumor and brain lesion. A brain tumor is a specific type of brain lesion. A lesion illustrates any area of damaged tissue, and all tumors are lesions, but not all lesions are tumors. Other brain lesions can be caused by stroke, injury, or encephalitis, for example.

All brain cancers are tumors, though not all brain tumors (benign) are cancerous. Benign brain tumors usually grow tardily, have specific borders and rarely spread, but they can still be dangerous. Damaged and compressed parts of the brain can still happen, causing havoc and life-threatening. A benign tumor can become malignant but very rarely.

Malignant brain tumors are cancerous. They usually grow fast and attack surrounding sturdy brain frameworks. For example, malignant tumors that appear in or near the brain include olfactory neuroblastoma, chondrosarcoma and medulloblastoma.

Common cancers that can spread to the brain are:

Brain tumors can form in any part of the brain, but there are certain regions where specific tumors form:

In general, the most common symptoms of a brain tumor may include:

  • Personality or behavior changes
  • Headaches
  • Seizures or convulsions
  • Difficulty thinking, speaking or finding words
  • Weakness, numbness or paralysis in one part or one side of the body
  • Loss of balance, dizziness or unsteadiness
  • Confusion and disorientation
  • Memory loss
  • Loss of hearing
  • Vision changes

The Cleveland Clinic says medical imaging modalities, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, are essential in the discovery of brain tumors. But what’s the difference between a PET scan, CT scan and MRI?

Computed tomography (CT) scans use X-rays while magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans use magnets and radio waves, each producing still images of organs and body structures.

But PET scans use a radioactive tracer to show how an organ is operating in real time. Also, PET scan images can detect cellular changes in organs and tissues earlier than CT and MRI scans. A PET scan is a type of nuclear medicine imaging. Nuclear medicine uses small and safe amounts of radioactive material, called radiotracers, given through an IV.

Your healthcare provider may request a PET scan and CT scan at the same time (PET-CT). This combination produces 3D images that give way for a more accurate diagnosis. In general, a PET scan can identify organs and tissues that aren’t working as they should.

If your healthcare provider suspects you may have cancer, they’ll likely recommend a PET scan, which can detect cancer and make a diagnosis. 

If you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer, your provider may recommend more than one PET scan throughout your treatment to:

  • Resolve whether the cancer has spread (metastasized) in your body 
  • Determine the effectiveness of treatment
  • Check if the cancer has returned after treatment
  • Evaluate the prognosis of the cancer

If you’re experiencing neurological symptoms, your provider may recommend a PET scan to evaluate possible brain anomalies, such as tumors, seizures, and other central nervous system conditions, for example.

Unlike other imaging techniques, PET scans focus on processes and molecular activity within your body. This gives them the potential to find disease in its earliest stages.

Diseased cells in your body absorb more of the radiotracer than healthy ones do. The PET scanner detects this radiation and produces images of the affected tissue. A PET/CT scan combines X-ray images from a CT scan with PET scan images.
The entire PET scan process takes about 2 hours.

It can use up to 60 minutes for your body to absorb the injected radiotracer. You’ll need to sit quietly during this time and limit your movements. The actual PET scan takes about 30 minutes. After the test, you’ll need to wait while the technologist reviews the scans to make certain the images are clear.

In general, PET scans are safe and rarely generate any problems. The amount of radiation in the radioactive tracer is very low so it doesn’t stay in your body for long. You should drink tons of water after a PET scan to help get rid of the radioactive drug from your body.

PET scans can cause some risks:

If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you should not get PET scans. The radiation may be harmful to a fetus and can pass to an infant in breast milk.

Some people have an allergic reaction to PET scan radioactive tracers or CT scan contrast dyes though they’re usually mild. 

People with diabetes may not absorb the sugar in the radiotracer which can affect scan results though your healthcare provider will offer suggestions to modify your diet and medications before the PET.

The results usually takes 24 hours.

From across the pond, the University College in London (UCL) in 2023 said researchers from the UCL Cancer Institute have provided important molecular comprehension of how injury may contribute to the development of a relatively rare but often aggressive form of brain tumor called gliomas (brain tumors that often arise in neural stem cells).

Prior studies have suggested a possible causal link between head injuries and increased rates of brain tumors. The UCL team have now identified a probable mechanism to explain this link, implicating genetic mutations acting along with brain tissue inflammation to change the behavior of cells, making them more likely to become cancerous.

This study was largely conveyed to mice. It indicates that it would be significant to explore the importance of these findings to human gliomas.

Led by Professor Simona Parrinello (UCL Cancer Institute), Head of the Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit and co-lead of the Cancer Research UK Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, she said, “Our research suggests that a brain trauma may contribute to an increased risk of developing brain cancer in later life.”

The team then looked for proof to support their hypothesis in human populations. Alongside Dr Alvina Lai in the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, they examined electronic medical records of over 20,000 people who had been diagnosed with head injuries, comparing the rate of brain cancer with a control group, matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status.

They discovered that patients who had a head injury were nearly four times more likely to develop a brain cancer later in life, than those who had no head injuries. The risk of developing brain cancer is overall low, estimated at less than 1% over a lifetime, so even after an injury the risk remains moderate.

Professor Parrinello said, “We know that normal tissues carry many mutations which seem to just sit there and not have any major effects. Our findings suggest that if on top of those mutations, an injury occurs, it creates a synergistic effect. In a young brain, basal inflammation is low so the mutations seem to be kept in check even after a serious brain injury. However, upon ageing, our mouse (1) work suggests that inflammation increases throughout the brain but more intensely at the site of the earlier injury.”

And such is life. Even though I’ve said it before, it amazes me, with all the organs inside our bodies, bustling to do what they do and crammed so tightly together, that more of us aren’t sick. But cancer…. That falls into a class of its own.

(1) The mouse brain is much smaller than a human’s, but when looking at individual neurons, synaptic vesicles and glial cells, “you can’t tell the difference. At the level of cells and synapses, all mammalian brains are basically the same,” said Jeff Lichtman, MD and PhD, a Harvard professor who has spent decades pioneering work in ‘connectomics,’ that focuses on mapping and analyzing the connections within the brain.

Joyce Hoffman

Joyce Hoffman

Joyce Hoffman is one of the world's top 10 stroke bloggers according to the Medical News Today. You can find the original post and other blogs Joyce wrote in Tales of a Stroke Survivor. (https://talesofastrokesurvivor.blog)
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http://talesofastrokesurvivor.blog
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