Brain Cancer

There are two main types of brain cancer. Primary brain cancer starts in the brain. Metastatic brain cancer starts somewhere else in the body and moves to the brain. Brain tumors can be benign, with no cancer cells, or malignant, with cancer cells that grow quickly.

Brain tumors can cause many symptoms. Some of the most common are

• Headaches, usually worse in the morning
• Nausea and vomiting
• Changes in your ability to talk, hear or see
• Problems with balance or walking
• Problems with thinking or memory
• Muscle jerking or twitching
• Numbness or tingling in arms or legs

No one knows the exact causes of brain tumors. Doctors can seldom explain why one person develops a brain tumor and another does not.

What is the brain?

The brain is the organ in a person's skull that controls the functions of all of the other organs. Together, the brain and spine make up the central nervous system. The brain is responsible for the experience of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell). The brain is also the seat of thought, language, personality, creativity and memory. The brain controls movement, sensation, balance, and coordination. In order to do its job, the brain requires an enormous amount of the oxygen and nutrient energy that a person takes in regularly.

The brain is comprised of nerve cells (called neurons) which carry signals, and the cells which support these nerve cells (called glial cells). There are a number of different types of glial cells, all with different names and functions. The glial cells outnumber the neurons in the brain by a ratio of 10:1.

What are brain tumors?

Brain tumors occur when cells in the brain begin to divide out of control and start to displace or invade nearby tissues. Occasionally, brain tumors can spread throughout the body. Tumors that have the potential to spread to other sites of the brain or body are called malignant. When tumors originate in the brain, they are called primary brain tumors. Any of the various normal cell types of the brain can mutate and become a primary tumor, and the particular cell type that makes up the tumor controls how the tumor is likely to behave. Secondary brain tumors or brain metastases are those that originate elsewhere in the body and metastasize (spread) to the brain. These are not classified as primary brain tumors, but instead as brain metastases. Brain metastases are actually much more common than primary tumors.

Brain tumors are not really thought of as a single disease, but rather as a collection of several diseases that are characterized by cell type, clinical behavior, and type of therapy. One of the special characteristics of brain tumors is that sometimes benign tumors can be as challenging to treat as a malignant tumor, depending on their size and location within the brain. This is because the brain is locked into place by the skull and can't move out of the way if a tumor is growing near it. Even a benign tumor can cause pressure on the brain, and this pressure can be both symptomatic and life-threatening.