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Date: 2021-08
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About Brain Tumour

People diagnosed with brain cancer often feel hopeless, but they can still survive as with other cancer patients. 60% of the patients can survive with early detection of brain cancer. In Hong Kong, there are over 200 new cases and 100 deaths of brain cancer and nerve tumours every year.




What is Brain Tumour?

Brain tumour, also called “Intracranial Tumour”, can be divided into primary tumour and secondary tumour. Primary tumour is a tumour growing at the original site where it first arose in the brain. In contrast, secondary tumour, not necessarily equal to brain cancer, arises from the metastasized cancer from other parts of our body (e.g. nasopharyngeal cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer etc.).

There are different types of brain tumour, which can be divided broadly into benign and malignant subtypes: Benign tumour – composed of slow growing, non-invasive cells with distinct cell boundaries anatomically. A typical example is meningioma.

Malignant tumour (Cancer) – composed of rapid growing, invasive cells with no intact cell membranes/no obvious cell boundaries, could potentially metastasize to other organs.

Symptoms

Since different regions of the brain are responsible for different physiological functions, symptoms of brain cancer vary depending on the location, characteristics and size of the tumour. Listed below are some of the possible symptoms:
  • Seizures (generalized/ partial)
  • Motor and sensational impairment in upper limb and/lower limb
  • Headache
  • Vomiting
  • Drowsiness, Personality change, Memory impairment
  • Disturbed vision, diplopia, visual impairment
  • Ataxia
  • Facial numbness, pain or dysphagia


Risk Factors

The cause of brain cancer is not yet well understood, but a few cases have been regarded as related to inherited, genetic or chemical factors.

Diagnosis

Most common diagnoses of brain cancer include the following three methods:

Computed Tomography (CT) - using numerous X-Rays penetrating human body and computers to generate cross-sectional images of the body. This is the most widely used method in the public healthcare sector.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - producing detailed cross-sectional images of the body, with the provision of precise and detailed information for brain cancer diagnosis.

Positron-emission tomography (PET) – involving the injection of radionuclide into the patients, followed by imaging with positron scanner. This is used in examining whether cancer cells metastasized to other parts of the body. PET is more expensive.

Treatment

Surgery – removing the tumour and surrounding tissues which are suspected to be invaded by cancer cells . However, tumours which have invaded, surrounding or attached to vital brain tissues could be difficult to remove. To reduce intracranial pressure, the surgeon would clear brain tumour while ensuring patient’s safety.

Radiotherapy – CyberKnife, Gamma Ray or X-Knife are more commonly used in treating brain tumour. The risk of radiotherapy is lower compared to surgical intervention, yet complications like cerebral edema, alopecia and headache is still possible to arise. This method is applicable to those with a brain tumour both small in size and not situated near brainstem or other vital nerves. This method is relatively less effective in treating glioblastoma.

Chemotherapy – being used in treating metastasized cancer cells with the circulation of drugs in the body via blood vessels. As with chemotherapy treatment for other cancers, certain side effects are still possible to arise.

Targeted Therapy – angiogenesis inhibitors, for example, specifically for glioblastoma treatment

Anti-epileptic drugs – being used to control partial or generalized seizures

Steroid Therapy – being used to reduce edema in tumour surrounding tissues.

Prevention and Screening for Brain Cancer:

Currently, there are neither effective preventive measures, nor effective screening tests for brain cancer.



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