Brain Tumour Action Week 2023

Each year over 190,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Brain tumors are a leading cause of tumor cancer deaths in children. Brain tumors are also the third main cause of cancer death in adults within the 20-39 age bracket.

Brain Tumor Action Week seeks to raise awareness about brain tumors, including raising awareness about incidence, diagnosis, treatment and care of people suffering from brain tumors.

Specialty care and follow up care, rehabilitative services and clinical trials are activities which can enhance the quality of life of people living with brain tumors.

Brain Tumors - Quick Facts

Types Of Brain Tumors

Brain tumors are either primary or metastatic tumors. Primary brain tumors are those which originate in the brain. Metastatic brain tumors are those which originate from cancerous cells that have migrated from other areas of the body.

Metastatic brain tumors are also known as secondary brain tumors. Not all brain tumors are cancerous - benign brain tumors are non cancerous tissue and are harmful only when they grow to a size which affects adjacent areas of the brain. Benign brain tumors tend to grow more slowly than malignant (cancerous) brain tumors.

Brain Tumor Warning Signs

Raising awareness of brain tumors includes educating the public on the warning signs of brain tumors. In approximately 30-40% of cases the first warning sign of a brain tumor is a seizure.

Early warning signs include:

• seizures
• headaches
• fatigue, tiredness and drowsiness
• impaired speech
• difficulties when swallowing
• in infants, an increase in head size
• impaired vision
• vomiting
• poor body coordination
• behavioral and mood changes
• weakness in a limb or on one side of the body
• difficulties with balance
• tingling sensations and/or weakness in the arms or legs

Treating Brain Tumors

With over 120 different forms of brain tumor, effectively treating them can become very complicated.

Protron treatment for a brain tumor is a precise method of using proton therapy to deliver powerful doses of radiation to the tumor. The precision this delivery of treatment brings, means there is minimal effect of the surrounding healthy brain tissue.

Dosage of radiation can be tailored to each tumor. Other treatments include surgical removal, chemotherapy, radio therapy or a combination of these methods.

High Publicity Cases Raise Awareness Of Brain Tumors

When people in the public eye suffer from brain tumors awareness of this disease is increased within the general population.

Ted Kennedy Brain Tumor

The Massachusetts Senator was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in 2008. Senator Edward Kennedy was suffering from one of the most common forms of brain tumor, a malignant glioma. As with approximately 30-40% of cases, the first sign of a brain tumor in Ted Kennedy was when he experienced a seizure.

There are different types of malignant gliomas; glioblastomas are one of the more aggressive forms which are diagnosed in approximately 25,000 American a year.

The prognosis for people with glioblastomas tumors is not good. Approximately 3% of those with this type of tumor survive five years from diagnosis.

Brian Blosil Brain Tumor

Brain Blosil, the music producer who is the ex husband of actress and singer Marie Osborne has had health issues in recent years surviving a brain tumor.