Common headaches can be cured easily through relaxation, but the headaches that come with vomiting, weakness of one or other part of the body, difficulty in hearing or seeing or understanding, need the help of a specialist to analyse the reason behind. A normal headache subsides with sleep, but if headaches persist after morning wake-ups, it could be a matter to worry about that might hint brain tumour or some other complications.
A Dehradun based hospital organised an awareness meet on Thursday to mark the ‘World brain Tumour Day’ and discussed the common symptoms and treatment of the disease. Though brain tumours are not commonly marked in Uttarakhand knowledge of the disease can help get early diagnosis and treatment if required. Cases are known where infants are born with malignant tumours.
Addressing a press conference in Haridwar, Neurosurgery consultant Dr H C Pathak said, “All our functions, from eating to speaking to walking and others and all our emotions from love to hate are controlled by the brain, spinal cord and nerves that are intimately connected.
The brain is housed in a rigid skull and body maintains a rather homogeneous atmosphere, air -conditioned and shock- proof inside the skull. Abnormal growth of tissues in the skull leads to formation of tumour, causing local destruction and pressure on surrounding normal tissues.”
In general, the word tumour scares the patients who fear that it cannot be treated. But not all tumours are malignant, say the experts. There can be benign tumours as well and the malignant tumours need surgery. “Malignant tumours can be controlled for variable periods of time with surgical treatments like radiotherapy and chemotherapy. But they differ from cancers of rest of the body in that they do not spread to other parts of the body.”
Another Neurosurgery consultant Dr Anand Thakur said that brain tumours account for about 2% of all cancers. Around 50 new cases of brain tumours are diagnosed every day worldwide and most of them are not inheritable.
When asked about the frequency of occurrence of brain tumour in India, Dr Sandeep Singh Tomar said, “The incidence and prevalence of brain tumour is growing rapidly in India. Every year 40 to 50,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumour which reduces life expectancy by 20 years. The brain tumours are often operated while the patient is awake and the three modalities- neuro-navigation, intra operative electro physiology and awake craniotomy- are available.”