Brain tumors— New horizons, new thoughts

A century has elapsed since the first successful brain tumour surgery was performed by the father of neurosurgery - Dr Harvey Cushing. In the following 70 years, progress was made in all basic aspects of the diagnosis and management of brain tumors. With the introduction of CT Scan in 1971, brain tumor diagnosis became fast, accurate, specific and more accessible.

The lengthy, laborious, risky and invasive investigative procedures became the things of the past. In India, about 40-50,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumors and successfully managed with excellent results. However, even then, the fear of brain tumor diagnosis and pessimism regarding the surgery outcome is prevalent today. The general public's widespread impression that brain tumors are prevalent and all are uniformly cancerous is without scientific basis. Brain cancer incidence is 2-3% per one lakh population, amounting to LESS than 2% of all cancers in the human body. It is essential to note that only one third of all brain tumors are cancerous while there are 125 varieties of such.

Equally important is to state that the chances of any person developing a malignant tumor in their life span are less than 1%. The symptoms can be morning headaches, mainly in the forehead, vomiting, double vision epilepsy, memory disturbances, loss of sight, smell, and hearing, particularly on one side, weakness of one half of the body, swallowing difficulty, walking trouble, unclear speech, menstrual cycle irregularity, drowsy or unconscious. One can go for the investigations like a CT Scan of the brain: Plain & contrast, MRI brain with contrast, and PET Scan brain —rarely. For a long time, it was said to be unknown. However, with improved research and surveillance, a few causes are mentioned, like stress, radiation exposure, exposure to chemicals like pesticides, oil products, rubber, chlorinated industrial solvents, genetic factors and family history, lifestyle and Vitamin deficiency Vitamin C, beta carotene, and foliate. Brain tumors can develop in all age groups, mainly children & adults.

Brain tumors are mainly two types:

Primary: Tumors developing in the brain, brain coverings & cranial nerves.

Secondary: Metastatic tumors from other body parts like thyroid, lung, breast, kidney & intestines. Once brain tumors are confirmed, the line of treatment is surgery. Nowadays, tumors of less than 2 centimetres are managed with radiotherapy if there is no significant brain compression.

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