A Brain Tumor Diagnosis: Who Are More At Risk of Brain Tumor?
The mere mention of the term “brain tumor” usually sends shivers down anyone’s spine. To most people it invokes images of cancer, suffering and death.
In some cases this is needed, unfortunately true. But there in are in fact a myriad of different types of brain tumor, some are malignant, some are benign. They all almost always call for surgical intervention and the treatment beyond that but thanks to advances in medical science a brain tumor is no longer an automatic death sentence.
No one has been able to determine precisely what causes any kind of brain tumor to develop, and it is hard for doctors to explain why one person develops a brain tumor and another perhaps very similar person does not. Over the course of years of study and research however medical science has identified some risk factors for the development of brain tumors though.
According to research, males are more susceptible to brain tumors than females, and they occur more often in white people than in black. In adults the risk of developing a brain tumor increases as an individual reaches the age of 70 and beyond, but that is not to suggest that brain tumors do not affect young people. In fact unfortunately brain tumors are the second leading cancer found in children under eight years old. The risk then decreases after that age, but researchers are unsure why that is.
There is also some evidence that exposure to certain chemicals, especially in the workplace may contribute to the risk of brain tumor development. Vinyl chloride and Acrylonitrile, commonly used in textile manufacturing have been identified as a possible risk and so has formaldehyde. However, in the case of the latter researchers only found an increase in brain tumors amongst embalmers and pathologists, but not amongst other sectors of the population who come into contact with the substance, an anomaly they have yet to be able to explain.
A controversial argument is still raging amongst researchers and medical experts as to whether or not cell phone usage puts an individual at risk for brain tumors.
Symptoms of a brain tumor may be severe and recurrent headache, changes in speech such as slurring one’s words and problems with gait or balance that develop suddenly. These symptoms are also indicative of a number of other conditions, so the presence of one or more of them should not be a cause for alarm but does warrant a prompt visit to the doctor.
A brain tumor diagnosis can be made in a number of different ways, although a CT scan or MRI are the most commonly used diagnostic tools in use today.
Surgery is most commonly used as the first step in the treatment of a brain tumor, whether malignant or benign. In cases where surgery would be too dangerous, radiation therapy is used instead to try to shrink and destroy the tumor.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
In Jan.2000 My husband suffered a brain tumor , had surgery,brain surgery only being able to remove only a portion of it , he then passed away in March of 2000. We have no idea how long he had it, but for several months leading up to the diagnoses, he was having memory problems & confusion.It apeared to come on rather quickley. A few months before the diagnosis, he had been filling a motor home with propane when a large cloud of vapor blew back in his face. He imediately became nauseated with dificulty breathing. He was checked out & was told that the vapor from the propane was not harmfull, eventhough one of the interns told how the propane vapor was used in some places to kill weeds. So my family & I have always felt that the propane had something to do with it. This is something we will never know. Shirley