Tori Shultz

Brain Tumors

The brain itself is a soft spongy mass of tissue, which is protected by, the bones of the skull, three thin layers of tissue (meninges), and watery fluid (cerebrospinal fluid) that flows through the spaces between the skull and through spaces (ventricles) within the brain. When cells in the brain grow old or get damaged they die and new ones are supposed to take their place. Sometimes though this process does not always happen. The buildup of extra dead cells often form a mass of tissue called a growth or a tumor. There are two kinds of tumors that can form and they are either benign or malignant (cancerous).
Benign tumors usually can be removed and seldom grow back. The cells from benign tumors rarely invade the tissues around them and they do not spread to other parts of the body. However though this does not make them harmless. They can press on sensitive parts of the brain and cause serious health problems and can be life threatening. Benign tumors also have a chance of becoming malignant.
Malignant brain tumors (also called brain cancer) contains cancer cells. These tumors are generally more serious and often a threat to life. They grow rapidly and crowd and invade healthy brain tissue nearby. Cancer cells may break away from the tumors and spread to other parts of the brain or spinal cord. But these cancerous brain tumors rarely spread to other parts of the body.
There are different grades of tumors also, a Grade 1- the tissue is benign, Grade 2-the tissue id malignant, Grade 3- the tissue has cells that look very different from normal cells, Grade 4- the malignant tissue has cells that look most abnormal and tend to grow quickly. Over time low grade tumors can become high grade tumors, but this change tends to occur more in adults than in children.
Primary brain tumors are named according to the type of cells or the part of the brain the tumor originates in.
How you get a brain tumor is still kind of a mystery. Doctors do not know why one person may get one and the other person does not. It relies on the person’s risk factors as to which they have one or not. One risk factor is Ionizing radiation, from high dose x-rays. Another is the person’s family history. Although it is rare for brain tumors to run in a family