• Question: when someone gets cancer in the brain how and why does it affect the brain what could cause death from cancer in the brain ?

    Asked by alastairosborne to Kat, Andrew, Katie, Sadaf on 23 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Andrew Swale

      Andrew Swale answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      Brain cancer arises even from a direct tumour originating in the brain or one that has developed from cancer elsewhere in the body

      How it affects the patients depends on the combination of factors like the type of tumor, its location, its size and its state of development.

      Main symptoms are increased cranial pressure (eg headaches, nausea), dysfunction (eg personality affects, loss of senses, memory loss etc) and irritability (eg worry, anxiety, mood swings etc)

      How it causes also varies depending on the tumour size and type. For a growing tumour, generally the swelling reaches a level where it cannot be controlled and the patient gradually sleeps more and more until they slip into unconsciousness, sometimes this occur 1-2weeks before death

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