The words brain cancer seem to tend to bring with them terror over and above that of other forms of cancer, however, as terrible as this form of cancer is, and I don’t mean to minimize it, brain cancer does not necessarily mean death. Sometimes cancerous tumors of the brain will not spread out to other areas of the body but will simply stay in the cranial cavity itself. It will however, often attack other tissues in that area and result in serious problems and challenges.

Sometimes the tumor will grow and push parts of the brain causing various reactions such as headaches, nausea, vomiting, comas, times when the victim will seem to be out of touch and unresponsive to people and things around him. Also, there will often be a dialation of the eye on the side where the tumor is located. Eye doctors will often notice differences in the eye and the eye responses during an eye examination. In very young children, this pushing can result in an increase of the size of the skull itself.

It may also result in certain neurological symptoms, cognitive impairment of various kinds, changes in behavior, personality, emotional responses or initiations,

It may also result in physical challenges, such as the loss of the sense of smell, loss or partial loss of sight, loss or partial loss of hearing, problems with swallowing, paralysis on one side of the body, stroke, traumatic brain injury, seizures and other problems, depending on what part of the brain the tumor is pressing against.

It is also to be noted that in some cases there will be no noticeable symptoms or that the symptoms will be so seemingly minor that the person’s life will go on as usual with no or with very minor, hardly noticeable changes.

A person’s health is important. If it is not taken care of properly, things like brain cancer may take over and change things and there will be no changing back. It is important to follow one’s doctor’s advice. Go for periodic checkups. If you find that something doesn’t seem quite right, don’t wait, make an appointment and go to the doctor. Your doctor has the equipment to look into things and find out. If he/she finds nothing wrong, celebrate, don’t gripe about wasted money. If he/she does find something wrong, be glad you went and got help immediately, it can make all the difference; the difference between being a victim of brain cancer or a victor over brain cancer.

The symptoms of brain tumor vary from patient to patient, and most of these symptoms can also be found in people without brain tumors. So the only way to know if you really have a brain tumor or not is to consult your doctor and get a brain scan.

Headache is the symptom that is common with 46% of patients with tumors. They described this headache in a different way and no reason is a sure sign of a brain tumor for many. Perhaps most people have headaches at some point in their lives, so it is not sure sign of brain tumors. You should talk to your doctor if your headaches are different than you’ve ever had, with nausea / vomiting, aggravated by bending or effort to go to the bathroom.

Seizures: This was the second most common symptom reported, with 33% of patients reporting a seizure before the diagnosis was made. Seizures can be caused by other things, such high fever, as epilepsy, stroke, trauma and other disorders. This is a symptom that should never be ignored, whatever the cause. In a person who has never had a seizure before, it usually indicates something serious and you should get a brain scan.

A crisis is a sudden and involuntary change in behavior, muscle control, consciousness, and / or sensation. Symptoms can vary from attack and sudden loss of consciousness total agitation of the violent shaking or slight shaking of a limb. A person can experience blurred vision, slurred speech or staring into space and doing other odd behaviors, while having a seizure. About 10% of United States population will experience a single seizure in their lives.

Nausea and Vomiting: As with headaches, these are non-specific – meaning that most people who have nausea and vomiting do not have a brain tumor. Twenty-two percent of our respondents said nausea / vomiting as a symptom.

Nausea and / or vomiting are more likely to look for a brain tumor which is accompanied by other symptoms mentioned here.

Vision problems or hearing: Twenty-five percent reported vision problems first. It is not easy if you have a problem with your hearing or sight, to be extracted. I have often heard that the eye doctor is the first to make diagnoses. When you look in your eyes, sometimes you can see the signs more. Intracranial pressure, because it must be studied.

Problems with the weakness of the arms, legs and facial muscles, and strange sensations in the head or hands: Twenty-five percent reported weakness in the arms or legs. Sixteen percent expressed feelings of weird and strange sensations in there head. This can lead to an altered gait, falling objects, falls, or asymmetric facial expression. These can be symptoms of a stroke. Sudden onset of symptoms is an emergency – you should go to medical emergencies. If you notice a gradual change over time, you should know.

A brain cancer survival rate refers to the percentage of people who were reported still living after being diagnosed with the cancer about 5 yrs ago.

Basically, brain tumor is the abnormal growth of cells in the brain and we commonly refer to it as cancer cells. There are different ways in which a tumor may spread. One is that it can be a cause of the spread of cancerous cells originating from another body part or the cancer cells are really coming from the brain itself.

It is true that exposure to harmful chemicals leads to abnormal growth of brain tumor. It was statistically confirmed that about 80% of brain cancer patients are suffering from oligodendroglioma.

Cancer of the brain remains one of the most incurable cancers with an average survival period of one to two years.

Factors Affecting Survival

A five-year brain cancer survival rate may be influenced by several factors including the size of the tumor, at which part of the brain, the severity of the cancer and the stage. In most occasions, the general health of the patient is also an indicative factor of survival.

How do you calculate the rate of survival?

Survival statistics are based on a large number of people, and should not be used to predict the survival of an individual or patient.

Healthline.com reported that children at the age of 14 have around 73 percent chance of surviving cancer of the brain and live until five years of more, while the rate drops to 55 percent with young adults between 15 and 44. Middle-aged patients between 45 and 64 have a rate of 16 percent, and older people have a survival rate of only 5 percent.

Other facts

Statistical facts show that with the proper combination and usage of radiotherapy and chemotherapeutic drugs, the lives of those with brain cancer may be prolonged. In some patients, the quality of live may even be improved but there are those who easily give up and were not luckily able to live more than 2 years.

The brain cancer survival rate presented here is based on a relative result. The total 5-year brain cancer survival rate from the years 1995-2001 was more than 33%. The relative survival rates at 5 years for brain cancer by race and sex were:

• 32.1 percent of Caucasian men
• 37.7 percent for African-American men
• 33.5 percent of Caucasian women
• 37.5 percent for African-American women.

Brain cancer survival rate statistics reveals that about 85% of physical disorders were affected by the negative mental and emotional stress at the fourth/metastatic stage of the disease.

Many patients could attest to the fact that negative emotion and mental stress weaken the immune system despite the fact that there is no such direct connection between negative emotion and cancer, medically speaking. This is one thing we should remember when dealing with patients suffering from cancer, in general.