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Maria Silva-Garcia
Emily Robertson
Universal Life 111
10 November 2016

The definition of cancer is a disease caused by an uncontrollable division of abnormal cells in the
part of the body. There are a lot of different kinds of cancers, and you can basically get cancer in
any part of your body even your brain. Brain cancer is tumors, which is caused by abnormal
arises due to abnormal growth of cells that have increased in an uncontrollable manner.
There are different types of tumors. First there is primary tumors that are tumors that originate in
the brain and there are secondary tumors that are tumors that have spread to the brain from
cancer somewhere else in the body. There are different grades of tumors, the grades range from
1-4. Grades 1 and 2 are called low grade tumors, which are most of the time slow growing
masses and are most likely not going to spread. Low graded tumors are also known as benign.
Secondary tumors are high graded tumors and are grades 3 and 4. Secondary are tumors are have
already formed and can spread aggressively. Secondary tumors are also known as malignant.
Primary brain tumors are a lot less common that secondary tumors.

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There are different ways how you can confirm that you have a brain tumor. One way is by having
a neurological exam, a neurological exam is assessments of sensory neuron and motor responses.
They do this exam to check whether the nervous system is impaired. Another way to determine if
you have a tumor are imaging tests also known as a MRI, an MRI is the most common used to
determine if you have a brain tumor, an MRI is a test that uses magnetic field and pulses of radio
wave energy to make pictures of organs and structure inside the body. Another way is to get a
biopsy which is where the remove a piece of the tissue and then view the sample under a
microscope to determine if its cancer.
There are many symptoms that come along with brain tumors. The symptoms include,
change in pattern of headaches, headaches that gradually become more frequent and severe,
unexplained nauseas or vomiting, vision problems (blurred, double vision or loss of vision),
gradual loss of sensation or movement in an arm or leg, difficulty in balance, speech difficulties,
confusion in everyday matters, personality or behavior changes, seizures and hearing problems.
It is strongly advised to see a doctor if having any of these serious symptoms.
Treatments for brains tumors depends on the size and location that tumor is on the brain
and also you overall health. One of many treatments is Surgery. Surgery is available if the tumor
is accessible for operation and the surgeon will try to remove most of the tumor that is possible.
In some other cases if the tumor is located somewhere near sensitive area of the brain making
surgery very risky, but every surgery comes with risk in this case the risk would be infection and
bleeding. Another treatment is Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is where they use high
energy beams (like x-rays or protons) to kill the tumor cells. The side effect of radiation therapy
depends on the dose of radiation received, but the most common side effects are fatigue,
headaches and scalp irritation. Chemotherapy is also used to kill tumor cells. Chemotherapy is a

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drug that can be taken orally in pill or injected in your vein. Chemotherapy side effects also
depend on the dose of drug received but some of the most common side effects include nausea,
vomiting and hair loss.
Right now in 2016 we have about 688,096 Americans living with a brain tumor. 550,042
of those tumors are benign tumors and 138,054 are malignant. The average survival rate for all
malignant brain tumor patients is 34.4%. The survival rate for males is 31.7% and for females it
is 34.4%. An estimated 14,616 people will die in 2016 from malignant brain tumors. About
28,000 children ages from 0-14 are living with a brain tumor in the united states. The average
survival rate for all primary pediatric malignant brain tumors is 73.6%

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Work Citations
Mayo clinic staff, Brain tumors,2016, http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/braintumor/home/ovc-20117132
Quick Brain tumor facts, 2016, http://braintumor.org/brain-tumor-information/brain-tumor-facts/