Brain Cancer (Brain Tumor)
Who do brain tumors affect?
Brain tumors affect children and
adults and can develop at any age. They’re slightly more common in people
assigned male at birth (AMAB) than people assigned female at birth (AFAB).
Meningioma, which is usually benign,
is the only type of brain tumor that’s more common in people AFAB.
The most serious type of brain
tumor, glioblastoma, is becoming more common among people who are as the
general population ages.
How common are primary brain tumors?
Primary brain tumors (tumors that
originate in your brain) are uncommon. Only about 5 per 100,000 people are
diagnosed with a primary brain tumor each year in the United States.
About 4,100 children under the age
of 15 are diagnosed with a brain or central nervous system tumor each year in
the United States.
How serious are brain tumors?
Brain tumors — whether cancerous or
not — can cause serious problems. This is because your skull is rigid and
doesn’t provide room for the tumor to expand. Also, if a tumor develops near
parts of your brain that control vital functions, it may cause symptoms, such
as:
- Weakness.
- Difficulty walking.
- Problems with balance.
- Partial or complete loss of vision.
- Difficulty understanding or using
language.
- Memory issues.
Brain tumors can cause problems by:
- Directly invading and destroying
healthy brain tissue.
- Putting pressure on nearby tissue.
- Increasing pressure within your
skull (intracranial pressure).
- Causing fluid to build up in your
brain.
- Blocking the normal flow of
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the spaces within your brain, causing those
spaces to enlarge.
- Causing bleeding in your brain.
- However, some people have brain
tumors that never cause symptoms or grow large enough to compress surrounding
tissues.