Symptoms
Brain tumors can be treacherous, as there are hardly any clearly recognizable typical early warning signs for a long time. Often, a sudden seizure is the first sign of the disease. New-onset headaches, especially at night or in the early morning hours, or gradual changes in behavior can also be alarm signals. Other symptoms that may indicate brain tumors include nerve failures leading to facial paralysis, impaired vision and speech, uncoordinated movements and clumsiness, balance disorders, nausea, vomiting, hormonal disturbances or a tendency to become withdrawn, with a particularly high need for sleep. Often, however, many of these signs can only be correctly interpreted in retrospect.
Symptoms
Causes
Brain tumors are generally defined as all tumors inside the skull. In principle, a distinction can be made between benign and malignant tumors. However, “benign” by no means always means “harmless”: even a benign tumor can become life-threatening in an unfavorable location. The steadily growing pressure in the skull caused by the tumor can produce neurological deficits and destroy vital functions. Depending on the location of the tumor in the head, a distinction is made between tumors that occur directly in the brain and those that originate in the cranial nerves or meninges. The latter are among the most common tumors in the head. They are usually benign, originate from the hard meninges, are therefore called meningiomas and usually grow very slowly within a capsule. Neurinomas that originate in cranial nerves, especially in the auditory and vestibular nerves, are also usually benign.
In the case of tumors in the brain itself, physicians distinguish between primary (brain-derived) brain tumors, which originate from the cells of the brain substance, and secondary brain tumors (metastases). The latter are formed in the brain by metastases from other cancers, for example breast or lung cancer. Among primary tumors, i.e. tumors that originate in the brain, some are also benign, and these grow very slowly. A more common type is glioma, the most malignant subtype of which is glioblastoma. In this case, rapid and aggressive treatment is necessary.
What we can offer
Treatment/progression
In the case of benign tumors or individual metastases that are readily amenable to surgery, these can often be removed without difficulty. Otherwise, it is not uncommon that for many years the only treatment may be regular monitoring. In the case of malignant glioblastoma or multiple brain metastases, rapid and aggressive treatment is necessary. The most important form of therapy is surgery, for which the skull must be opened. In some tumors, radiation and/or chemotherapy is useful after surgery. Since radiation and chemotherapy have been used in addition to surgery at an increasingly early stage, the survival time of affected patients has increased dramatically and quality of life is also improved.
