Brain Tumors

Every year 79,000 people in the USA will be diagnosed with a brain tumor. 26,000 of these tumors will be malignant and the rest will be benign.  A tumor is the buildup of cells. A malignant tumor will lead to cancer. The symptom of a tumor depends on the location of the tumor. In some cases, the tumor creates a headache because of the tumor exerts pressure on the brain. In more extreme cases the tumor will damage healthy brain tissue leading to major damage such as seizures. There are several ways to treat a brain tumor including brain surgery, radiation, targeted treatments as well as chemotherapy. The goal of these treatments is to remove or shrink brain tumors elimating pressure from the brain curing the headaches and seizures that could have been caused by the brain tumor. Brain tumors could be removed by brain surgery such as craniotomy. In craniotomy the skull is opened and the tumor is removed. Another type of treatment is stereotactic radiosurgery. Stereotactic radiosurgery is when a high dose of radiation is applied directly to a tumor. A couple of stereotactic radiosurgery sessions could reduce or eliminate the tumor while also partially keeping healthy nearby tissue. A more modern way of treating tumors are ultrasounds. Multiple beams of ultrasounds are focused directly at a tumor. This method can happen painlessly while the patient is awake. ​

The white area shows a tumor in the brain
Source The Independent