Astrocytomas Essay

Stage 3 astrocytoma also called anaplastic astrocytoma is a tumor which the causes are still unknown. It attacks the brain and the spinal cords. The treatment for this tumor is rude. This case present a girl, Jenni Lake, 17 years old, which suffers of this disease. She was diagnosed with 3 tumors on her brain and 3 others on her spine. However, she is young and has the great chances to recover from her tumors. Nevertheless, the treatment required some restrictions and is not favorable to some health conditions like pregnancy. Then, while she was doing her treatment, she was confused because she discovered her pregnancy. If she decides to keep the pregnancy, she has to stop the treatment and cut her chance to recover

There are over 12,000 cases diagnosed each year.Once an MRI is taken and the mass is seen, this can only be diagnosed definitively once surgery has taken place and they have taken a sample and put it under a microscope to determine grade. The single hardest part to remove while in surgery is known as the feelers, they are thin like tentacles that grow out from the tumor and imbed themselves into the surrounding brain tissue. It is mostly defined in the brain area and rarely goes anywhere else in the body. the highest grade is four how they make that determination is taking the sample, while looking under a microscope to see how it

Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive form of malignant brain cancer in adults. On average, 8 of every 100,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with glioblastoma every year – representing approximately 2% of all cancers diagnosed [1]. Glioblastoma tumors form when astrocytes, star-shaped cells which support and protect the brain, re-enter the cell cycle and start to rapidly divide. Because the brain is supported by a large network of blood vessels, tumors grow quickly and are difficult to remove surgically. Present treatments for glioblastoma are limited to surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy; however, despite these interventions tumors are likely to regrow. Consequently, typical survival time following glioblastoma diagnosis is less than 2 years.

Tumors can be classified into three types: 1) benign 2) pre malignant 3) malignant tumor. Benign tumors are those which are incapable of abrupt expanding and affecting the other healthy brain tissues. Premalignant tumor is a pre cancerous stage, if not treated properly it may lead to cancers. It is often considered as a disease. Malignant tumor grows rapidly with time an ultimately leads to death of patient. Malignant is a medical term describing a sever growth of a disease. The most common primary brain Tumors are gliomas, wherein 70% are in the group of malignant gliomas, glioblastoma multiform (GBM).The GBM is one of the highest malignant human

The doctors also advise getting brain imaging before surgery in patients receiving induction therapy for the primary tumor.

CNS tumors represent the second most frequent tumor of childhood and the most common pediatric solid tumor; approximately 2,200 patients under the age of 20 are diagnosed each year with invasive CNS tumors, and CNS tumors are the number one cause of death from childhood cancer. [1] Therapeutic strategies generally involve surgery as a primary intervention, but complete resection is often not possible due to tumor location. In such cases, adjunct therapies, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy, may be required based on the tumor histology and presence of residual tumor. [2]

Ependymoma is a type of brain tumor and while it is rare in adults, accounting for 2-3% of brain tumors, ependymoma is mainly found in children and accounts for around 5% of all childhood brain cancers (American Cancer Society [ACS], 2014, January 31; American Brain Tumor Association [ABTA], n.d.). The survival rate of patients with ependymoma who have survived five years after their tumor is detected is 75% Tumors occur when cells grow to excess and form a mass. While some tumors are benign, meaning that they are harmless, others are malignant, or cancerous. Ependymoma is a malignant cancerous brain tumor (“American Society of Clinical Oncology [ASCO]– Childhood,” n.d.). The tumor appears as soft, grey or red tumors and could comprise of cysts or mineral calcifications.

The diseases associated with FUBP1 include oligodendrogliomas, astrocytomas, and oligoastrocytomas. Oligodendrogliomas are primary glial brain tumors and can be either low-grade (grade II) or high-grade (grade III). [2] Since oligodendrogliomas have a slow growth rate, they are often present for years before they are diagnosed. Nevertheless, the most common symptoms include: seizures, headaches, and personality changes. Altogether, the symptoms vary by location and size of the tumor. About 66 to 78 % of people with grade II oligodendroglioma survive for about 5 years after diagnoses, while 30 to 38 % of people with grade III will survive for about 5 years after they are diagnosed. [3] Astrocytoma is another type of brain cancer that stats in the cerebrum, which is the largest part of the brain, but can also appear in the cerebellum, which is the back of the brain. It is more common in men than in women. Like oligodendrogliomas, the most common symptoms of astrocytomas include: headaches, seizure, changes in behavior and memory loss. [4] Prognosis of astrocytomas depends on the type of astrocytoma. Altogether, a low-grade astrocytoma (LGA) has an 83 % 10-year overall survival, while the overall survival rate of a high-grade astrocytoma (HGA) range between 15-20%. In both oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas, the FUBP1 locus is mutated which leads to the inactivation of

Astrocytoma - NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders). (2015). Retrieved November 17, 2016, from https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/Astrocytoma/

Although conventional MRI has been used widely now to diagnose and follow up the brain tumor patients, it provides narrow information on tumor physiology, as well as the degree of contrast enhancement of glioblastoma has a relatively poor correlation with tumor grade, also its difficult to distinguish between glioma and radiation necrosis.

Astrocytoma are tumors that arise in the astrocytes of the brain. This specific tumor type can lead to effects such as headaches, seizures, memory loss, and changes in behavior when left untreated (“Astrocytoma”, 2014). Astrocytoma are graded in severity on a scale from I to IV based on the normality of the cells, with I being the least severe and IV being life threatening (“Astrocytoma”, 2014). For low grade astrocytoma, it is unclear as to which form of primary treatment is most beneficial, radiotherapy or neurosurgery, due to the fact that neurosurgery is often more effective in removing the tumor, but also exhibits a higher risk to the subject when the tumor is low grade (Kennedy, 2015). Other factors that may

These CNS tumors have complex morphological features with many sources citing that the histiogenesis is uncertain about their cells of origin. The 2006 text Tumors of the Eye and Ocular Adenexa states that these tumors are capillary hemangiomas and are “endothelium-lined capillaries interspersed with pale, vacuolated stromal cells” and that these stromal cells are “believed to be astrocytes that have imbibed plasma lipids.”2 In 2008, the Intraocular Tumors: An Atlas Textbook 2nd Edition reports that “[t]here is little information available about the pathology of this rare neoplasm. It is a diffuse vascular mass composed mostly of small-caliber vessels believed to be derived from endothelial cells of uveal blood vessels.”3 The 2011 Eye Pathology: An Atlas and Text 2nd Edition, states that these retinal hemangioblastomas are “composed of capillaries

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) one of the primary imaging modalities used to evaluate and diagnose chordoma. While MRI is done in conjunction with other modalities like computed tomography (CT) to obtain data, studies have shown that there are advantages to MRI not seen in CT. One of them is using diffusion-weighted MRI to assess and differentiate chordoma from other cranial tumors that have “overlapping presentations and anatomic imaging features” such as chondrosarcoma (Yeom et al, 1056). Diffusion-weighted MRI uses the motion of particles in fluid within voxels to measure cellular density and the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio. In a study, Dr. Kristen Yeom and colleagues examined patients with the following parameters: “TR/TE, 8300/70 ms at 1.5T and 10,000/80 ms at 3T, b=1000 s/mm2, three directions, 4 to 5 mm thickness, 0 skip” (Yeom et al, 1059). They looked at the data for Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC), which differed for the types of tumors; low ADC signifies abnormal diffusion restriction. The results yielded that classic chordoma had lower ADC values averaging 1460x10-6 mm2/s than chondrosarcoma’s 1977x10-6 mm2/s. Although researchers would be unlikely to distinguish chordoma and chondrosarcoma “on the basis of signal intensity characteristics” of T1 and T2 images, there are still uses for them (Oot el al, 568).

The types of tumors that form and the way they are treated are different in children and adults. In adults, anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastomas make up about one-third of brain tumors. The prognosis depends on many factors, including age, tumor size, tumor type, and where the tumor is in the central nervous system (CNS). From 2008-2012, the number of new cases of brain and other nervous system cancer was 6.4 per 100,000 men and women per year. The number of deaths was 4.3 per 100,000 men and women per year. The percent of people who survived brain cancer for five or more years from 2005-2011 was only 33.3%

Common malignant brain cancers increase significantly according to statistical data collected by the National Cancer Institute. In 1984, the annual incidence rates of primary brain tumor and primary brain lymphoma also increased notably, the rate of lymphoma almost tripling,