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Brain is the master control center of the body. It receives information from other parts of the body and controls its activities too. There are times when inherent disorders can damage the brain. Brain cancer or brain tumor is one such disorder that damages the cells of the brain which cannot be replaced. The abnormal growth of cells or abnormal cell division in the brain is known as brain cancer. This abnormal growth is seen in the brain, in the cranial nerves, skull, pituitary and pineal gland. It envelopes the brain and spreads through the cancer from other parts of the body.
Brain tumor can be malignant or benign (noncancerous). The seriousness or life threatening aspect of the tumor depends very on its type, location, its state of development and size. The malignant tumors spread aggressively and overpower the good cells in the brain. This causes malfunction in the working of the other parts of the brain.
There are various types of brain cancers and they depend on the type of cells in which they originate. All these tumors are not the same. The brain tumors are assigned a grade according to how the tumor appear microscopically. This grading provides an idea on how the tumor is growing. The grade 1 includes all benign tumors, which grow slowly. The second grade tumors are malignant. But they look more or less like normal cells. The third grade tumor looks different from normal cells and grows actively but it’s the fourth grade that is the most abnormal look wise and grow very fast. Thus the type of cells determine the types of brain cancer.
Among the malignant tumors, the WHO has classified nine categories of brain tumor. The categories include Infiltrative astrocytoma which originate in the Astrocytes, tumor from astrocytes is Pilocytic astrocytoma, Oligodendroglioma which originates from Oligodendrocytes, Mixed oligoastrocytoma from Oligodendocytes and astrocytes, Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) from Astrocytes and other brain cell types (astroblasts, spongioblasts), Ependymoma originate from Ependymocytes, Medulloblastoma from Primitive neural cell, Meningioma originate from Meninges. The high grade type of brain tumor is more dangerous.
The stages of brain cancer determine the severity of the disease. Amongst the stages of brain cancer the first stage is not very severe as the growth is slow and can be easily treated. The second stages of brain cancer is when the tumor is a little bigger. It starts to spread to surrounding tissues. This stage of brain cancer, it is still treatable. It is the stage three where the tumor grows very aggressively they look very different from the normal cells. Here surgery cannot be performed to remove the tumor as it has out of control now. Chemotherapy is done to shrink the size of the tumor. The stage four is the most difficult stage where possiblity of survival is pretty low, but treatment is not impossible.
