In medicine, a blastoma is called pathological excessive growth of tissue, which consists of deformed cells that have lost their shape and are not able to fulfill their intended function. A feature of this process is that the cells from which such a tumor is formed continue to grow even after the cessation of the pathological effect that provoked its development.
Further in the article, we will consider what the blastoma of the brain is, how it develops, and also call the symptoms accompanying its appearance.
Blast species
Blastomas are divided into 2 types - benign and malignant. If the former in the process of development push apart the surrounding tissues (in medicine this is called expansive growth), then the latter grow in them (infiltrative growth), damaging the blood vessels and spreading with blood flow throughout the body - metastasizing.
In addition, a brain blastoma can be different depending on the origin or type of tissue in which the pathological process began. So, if the named tumor appears from the lining of the brain or vessels surrounding it, then it is characterized as primary. In such a blastoma after surgery, positive dynamics are possible. And in a situation where it grows from other organs (that is, it is secondary), the prospects for treatment are much worse.
Causes of brain blastoma
To say exactly why no one can begin to develop a brain blastoma in the human body, although doctors still noted some common features in people with this pathology.
- The presence of a hereditary predisposition. If one of the relatives was diagnosed with cancer, then the risk of getting sick greatly increases.
- Existing defects in genes that can be both congenital and acquired in the process of life.
- Exposure to adverse environmental conditions: chemicals, food additives, electromagnetic and radioactive radiation.
- Age and race also play a role. It turns out that brain cancer is most often found in people belonging to the European race, and men are more prone to it than women. And the most risky age for this disease is 45 years, although it can also appear in newborn babies.
Brain Blastoma: Symptoms
Manifestations of the tumor process in the brain depend on the volume, location and growth rate of the blastoma. In the tissues squeezed or destroyed by the tumor, at first one can observe the so-called focal or primary symptoms. And in the process of progression of pathology and compression of the brain structures, cerebral symptoms are observed due to increased intracranial pressure and impaired hemodynamics.
Focal symptoms largely depend on which area of the brain is affected.
- So, the patient may lose the ability to determine the position of the parts of his body with his eyes closed, to the perception of external stimuli (pain, thermal or tactile).
- Or the patient may experience impaired memory, the occurrence of paralysis and paresis of individual parts or the whole body, the appearance of convulsive seizures, impaired ability to perceive sounds, as well as loss of speaking and writing skills.
- Most often, the patient becomes distracted and irritable. His gait changes, his coordination of movements is disturbed.
- And depending on the magnitude of the lesion, the spectrum of violations can even achieve a complete loss of self-awareness.
Cerebral symptoms
The most common symptom related to cerebral symptoms is a headache. It causes both irritation of the receptors of the meninges and an increase in intracranial pressure.
If the pituitary gland is affected by the blastoma, then the pain concentrates on the eyeball, which leads to photophobia and lacrimation. By the way, the headache caused by a brain blastoma is not amenable to the action of analgesics and, as a rule, is bursting and growing in nature.
No less common in such cases is vomiting that occurs regardless of food intake, and dizziness, provoked by compression of the cerebellar structures and resulting, as a result, disruption of the vestibular analyzer. As a rule, this causes the patient a persistent feeling that he, remaining motionless, turns in one direction or another.
Stages of Brain Cancer
A brain blastoma, the photo of which you can see in the article, has 4 stages of development.
- The easiest degree, which has no signs of malignancy. At this stage, the tumor grows slowly, and the forecasts of doctors are usually good, since the chances of cure are great.
- In the second stage, the cells look already atypical. The tumor is still growing slowly, the risk of moving to a more severe stage is greatly increased.
- In the third stage, the process begins to increase speed, and the tumor captures healthy cells. The operation carried out during this period does not guarantee success.
- The most complex form of cancer, characterized by a high growth rate. The boundaries of the tumor at this stage are almost impossible to determine, which forces doctors to abandon the operation, since there is a very high risk of causing greater harm to the patient.
Brain blastoma: a prognosis of the development of the disease
People whose relatives have been diagnosed with brain cancer are naturally wondering how long they can live with this disease.
It is clear that this greatly depends on the stage of the disease, as well as on the age of the patient, as older people, for obvious reasons, suffer this pathology most difficult. Doctors in this case make a forecast for no more than 3 years.
And patients who are younger, of course, have more strength and motivation to resist the development of the disease, which greatly increases the chances. But if a brain blastoma of the 4th degree is diagnosed, then they are reduced to zero. True, the patient is not in a hurry to report this, so as not to undermine his faith in healing, because there are many cases when patients recovered after surgery and appropriate therapy.