-Surgical treatment of Brain Tumor
--The diagnosis once cast a pall of despair over its victims, who had little hope and few options for recovery. However, neurosurgical research and innovative treatments are beginning to change that view. "We know so much more about brain tumors then we did 10 years ago," said John Jane Sr., MD, PhD, Editor of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons" Journal of Neurosurgery and a neurosurgeon in Virginia, "We still have a lot to learn, especially since brain tumors remain one of the least understood and difficult to treat tumors.But, there have been advances in how we diagnose brain tumors and how we treat brain tumors."
What is a brain tumor?
A brain tumor is a cluster of abnormal cells growing in the brain. Brain tumors can be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). They can start growing in the brain - a primary tumor, or they can be formed when cancer cells from another part of the body travel to the brain - a metastatic brain tumor. Approximately half of all primary brain tumors are benign. All metastatic brain tumors are malignant. More than 110,000 people are diagnosed each year with a brain tumor. Approximately 80,000 of tumors are metastatic. There are more than a dozen different types of brain tumors and they are classified by level of malignancy, size and degree to which the cancer has spread.
First, metastatic brain tumors often are formed when cancers of the lung, breast, colon, prostate and skin spread to the brain. Improvements in treating these diseases have prolonged the life of victims, giving the cancer a greater opportunity to spread. Second, significant advances in diagnosing brain tumors have been made while many brain tumors may have gone undiagnosed in the past.
-Edson Zerati, MD
-http://www.zerati.com
-http://www.tivi.tv/t/2994/ZERATI (less info)