In the initial stage of a meningioma, the symptoms are usually very subtle, and because they grow slowly, the patient usually does not notice them at all until the disease has advanced. The good news is, most meningiomas are benign tumors. In this article from Instituto Clavel, we explain more about this pathology.
Let’s imagine the case of Michael, a 35-year-old man, who falls off a ladder and hits his head. He is taken to the hospital and the doctors perform a routine examination to assess the effects of blow he has suffered. During that procedure, they discover that Michael has a meningioma, and that his fall was caused by a momentary loss of vision.
This story offers an example of the kind of situation in which this type of tumor is often first diagnosed, and the symptoms that might first affect the patient. As the story illustrates, meningiomas are often discovered by chance. A person can have a meningioma without symptoms.
What exactly are meningiomas, and what are the symptoms?
Meningiomas are a type of tumor that grows in the tissues encasing the brain and spinal cord, so they are considered a primary tumor of the central nervous system. As meningiomas grow, they tend to cause compression or pressure on the brain, its nerves, and the adjacent blood vessels. Meningiomas are the most common benign tumor of the central nervous system diagnosed in adults.
It is important for a patient diagnosed with this pathology to be monitored by their physician, and they may require medical treatment, because there is a tendency to develop blood clots, and there are even cases of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. These last two events can considerably impact the patient’s quality of life.
Traditionally, meningiomas have been classified in three grades:
- The most common is Grade I and is benign, which means that the tumor cells grow very slowly.
- Intermediate-grade atypical meningiomas are Grade II, and in this type, there is a higher probability of the tumor growing back after removal.
- Grade III are malignant anaplastic meningiomas, which is a malignant type of tumor that can grow much more rapidly.
However, the truth is that it is very rare for them to become malignant and, once a meningioma has been completely removed, it usually does not grow back. A specialist can easily detect the tumor with an MRI, and often this test leads to an accurate diagnosis.
Meningiomas occur more often in women than in men. These tumors are often discovered in elderly people, but this is not the rule, as they can appear at any time in life. More often, meningiomas are diagnosed as a result of a brain scan performed for some other reason, as in the case of Michael in our story presented earlier.
There is usually no contraindication against surgical removal of meningioma in elderly patients, as they can have this surgery as long as their clinical condition permits it.
The symptoms most commonly associated with meningiomas are as follows:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Progressive focal neurological deficit
What does focal neurological deficit mean? It means that if the tumor is located in a given essential area, the patient develops symptoms related to that area. For example, if it is on the motor cortex, the patient develops motor symptoms, if located on the sensory cortex, there will be sensory symptoms, and if it is on the visual cortex, affecting the optic nerve, the patient will begin to notice symptoms affecting vision.
Changes in mood, memory loss, difficulty paying attention, ringing in the ears, and weakness or numbness in the arms and legs, are other symptoms that a person suffering from this disease may have.
Benign or malignant meningiomas: how are they treated?
As we said previously, in most cases, meningiomas are benign. Even so, it is still possible that the patient may need to undergo surgery.
In this article we explain in which cases it is necessary to operate on a benign brain tumor
If the meningioma is malignant, surgery to remove the tumor is the first treatment option. In addition, there are additional treatments that can be implemented, both for malignant and benign tumors, including:
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Radiation treatment: this is used to delay the return of grade II and III meningiomas. Radiation therapy is also usually applied in those cases when it has not been possible to surgically remove the entire tumor, because of its location near delicate structures in the brain or spinal cord
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Chemotherapy: used to try to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells, which grow and multiply quickly. The use of this therapy to slow tumor growth in meningiomas is rare and is only used in a scenario where the patient does not respond to either surgery or radiation.
We hope that you have found this article from Instituto Clavel useful.
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Categories: Brain treatments, Brain pathologies