How is a brain tumor treated in a child?
The incidence of brain tumour is increasing and it’s now the second most common cancer in children. It accounts for almost 20 per cent to 25 per cent of all cancers in children. One of the causes could be due to better diagnostic facilities with easy availability of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans. Though the exact cause is not known, there are multiple risk factors including environmental pollution, exposure to chemicals, radiation, viral infections leading to changes in the genes (genetic mutation).
Brain tumours can be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous).
Common symptoms and signs
Symptoms like headache, vomiting (especially early morning projectile vomiting) gait disturbances, weakness in arm or legs, visual disturbances (dimness of vision, squint, double vision, etc), seizure, speech problems are harbingers of brain tumours. Sometimes, poor academic performances, personality changes, behavioural changes can also be associated with brain tumours. Vomiting in children can be due to some stomach related issues also but if vomiting continues and is associated with headache or any other specific symptoms, then the child should be investigated to rule out any brain related cause.
Treatment
ery
Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment for most of these tumours except some brain stem lesions. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy also play important role in malignant brain tumours.
The survival rates for many childhood brain tumours, especially low grade astrocytomas and medulloblastomas have improved over last two decades, and almost 60-70 per cent of them become long-term survivors. But, many survivors having lifelong deficits caused by their illness as well as by treatments are not uncommon. Probably with molecular diagnostics and newer targeted therapies, the issue of long-term toxicity will have some answer in the near future.
