About Brain Tumours
A brain tumour is an abnormal growth of cells (the body's building blocks) in the brain. Usually the different types of cells in the brain are kept in order but when out of control, a tumour can grow.
Every year over 500 children and young people in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour. Brain tumours make up a quarter of all cancers in children up to 15 years of age. They are the commonest cancer in 15-19-year olds and the second commonest cancer in 20-25-year olds.
These videos are useful tools when talking about brain tumours with younger children:
Different Types of Brain Tumour
Benign or Malignant
As with tumours in other parts of the body, a brain tumour can be benign or malignant.
A malignant tumour spreads with ‘tentacles’ and parts of it can grow into blood vessels or other spaces. It can be difficult to remove every bit of a malignant tumour.
Malignant brain tumours are ‘graded’ from 1 to 4, depending on how they are likely to behave.
A Grade 1 tumour is not very active and is likely to be slow growing
– it is a low-grade tumour.
A Grade 4 tumour is very active and is likely to grow quickly
– it is a high-grade tumour.
A benign tumour forms a lump which can grow bigger but doesn’t grow into other parts of the brain. However, because the brain is in a tight ‘shell’ (the skull), a benign brain tumour can squash important parts of the brain.
The location of a benign brain tumour can also make it very difficult to be removed surgically.
Primary or Secondary
A malignant brain tumour is called a primary brain tumour, because it started in the brain.
A secondary brain tumour (much less common in children and young adults) has started somewhere else in the body, but a small part has travelled through the blood stream and settled in the brain, where it grows into a new lump.
The most common brain tumours in younger children are:
Astrocytoma
An Astrocytoma grows from a star shaped cell – an ‘astrocyte’ and forms a mass of astrocytes.
Ependymoma
An Ependymoma grows from ependymal cells – and forms a mass of ependymals.
Medulloblastoma
‘blastoma’ means that the tumour grew from the sort of cell (blast cell) normally found in embryos.
The most common brain tumours in teenagers and young adults are:
Glioma
Glial cells make up about half of the brain’s cells so these are one of the most common types of tumour. ‘Glia’ means glue and glial cells support the brain’s nerve cells in many ways. There are different types of glioma – an astrocyma is one of them.
Pituitary
These tumours grow near the important pituitary gland which sits in the brain not far from the bridge of the nose. Both benign and malignant tumours can grow here.
Germ Cell
These types of tumours grow from very rare cells in the brain which are more usually found in the female ovary or male testes.
Common Symptoms of Brain Tumours
The brain lies in a tight protective ‘shell’ – the skull. As a tumour grows it squeezes the brain, stopping the flow of the fluid surrounding it. This means the brain cannot move as freely as it would normally do, which can cause headaches, nausea and vomiting.
Other symptoms include vision problems such as loss of sight, double vision or abnormal eye movements. Some patients experience new problems with movement or growth and development, needing to drink a lot more than usual, drowsiness or fits.