All that foreign tissue that arises within the skull cavity is called a brain tumor, although these also sometimes appear in the meninges, nerves and in the skull itself. For obvious reasons, they are one of the main health problems that affect the nervous system, given their potential severity.
In general, brain tumors are more recurrent during childhood, with some tumors being more common to see at this stage of development, such as medulloblastomas. There are also those that occur mainly in adulthood, with meningiomas and schwannoma being distinctive of this stage.
Below we will review the main characteristics of this type of disease, its symptoms and the most common types of brain tumors.
The symptoms are variable, depending largely on the size of the tumor, where it is located, and even the speed of its growth.
Constant headache would be the symptom par excellence in this condition. Other harmful effects would be the following: various cognitive or sensorimotor disorders, increased intracranial pressure that generates vomiting, diplopia (double vision), birth of ellipetogenous foci, etc.
Types of brain tumors and classification
Brain tumors can be classified in the following ways:
1. Primary and secondary
Primary ones arise within the brain or spinal cord, and rarely produce metastasis (extension of the tumor to another part of the body); although it is likely that, as a result of this initial tumor, new ones will arise within the nervous system itself.
The secondary ones are born outside the nervous system and what is known as brain metastasis occurs. That is, it can arise as a result of breast, lung, gastrointestinal, etc. cancer. It should be noted that this type of tumor is malignant and inoperable.
2. Infiltrating and encapsulated
The infiltrators are distinguished by the fact that there is no limit that establishes where they begin and where they end, and in the encapsulated ones it is possible to better distinguish which place it occupies.
Therefore, the former tend to be more dangerous, since as they spread, they tend to deteriorate the area in which they are located.
3. Benign and malignant
There is a scale with various degrees of hierarchy, which allows you to know when they belong to one side and when to the other. Those that are grade I are the least harmful (although they are still considerably dangerous when removed), and those that belong to IV have the worst prognosis.
In general, Tumors that belong to category I and II do not generate metastases, and the survival of those who suffer from them is generally several years; while those that are III and IV do cause metastasis and survival does not go beyond a few/several months.
Cancer in the nervous system: examples
Here you can see a brief description of various types of tumors that appear in the nervous system.
1. Gliomas
It is the name given to any tumor that arises from a considerable spread of neuroglia They are evil type.
It is generally caused by an increase in astrocytes (therefore generating astrocytomas); in some cases of oligodendrocytes (producing oligodendrocytomas as an effect) and glioblastomas multiforme, also known as grade IV gliomas.
This is the name given to tumors of non-glial origin that originate in the meninges, mainly in the subarachnoid space or in the dura mater. They are usually benign and have a good prognosis.
3. Medulloblastomas
This is the name given to malignant tumors that very commonly arise in the cerebellum of children due to the growth of germ cells that access it or the lower part of the brain stem. It is a bad prognosis.
4. chawnnomas
This is what is known as benign tumors that arise due to Schwann cells (which have the main function of producing the myelin that covers the axons in the Peripheral Nervous System). They can exist in both cranial and spinal nerves.
