
Brain cancer is one of the types of cancer, which is a non-curable disease. The causes for this usually fatal disease can be many, and are discussed in the paragraphs below.
For a human body, it does not make any sense if all the body parts are working, and the brain is not working. If the brain does not work, there would be no one to command the parts to perform their functions. One of the most horrendous things threatening this CPU of your body is brain cancer. Before we move on the causes of brain cancer, let’s take a look at what brain cancer really is, and what are the symptoms manifested when suffering from it.
What is Brain Cancer?
Brain cancer or brain tumor (malignant), simply put, is an abnormal growth of cells in the brain. To go ahead and further define it, it is any intra-cranial cancer instigated by uncontrolled and abnormal division of cells. It could be either in the brain, in the pineal nerves, or in the cranial nerves. The interesting, though shocking, aspect is that those cells which form the components of the brain can lead to cancer. There is one thing which needs to be clarified. All brain tumors are not malignant or cancerous. On the other hand, any type of cancer is a tumor which is malignant. This abnormal growth is nothing but a mass of cells coming together.
Causes and Symptoms of Brain Cancer
Before we go on to causes, let’s first see what the symptoms are. The symptoms include:
- Headache
- Weakness
- Clumsiness
- Difficulty walking
- Seizures
- Changes in concentration, memory, attention, or alertness
- Nausea, vomiting, especially early in the morning
- Vision abnormalities
- Difficulty with speech
What Causes Brain Cancer?
Radiation
Radiation is a major cause of brain cancer. Those who work in an industry where maximum work is related to nuclear energy are more at risk. Nuclear radiation is extremely harmful to the body.
Genetics and Heredity
If a person has a history of brain cancer in their family, the chances of that person getting it are high. In other cases, if there is a certain type of genetic mutation, where an individual could lack a particular type of tumor suppressing genes, it may lead to cancer.
Cancer in Other Parts of the body
This is one of the most common reason for cancer in the brain. These are called secondary brain tumors. These result from cancer initiated in some other part of the body which then spreads to the brain. These are more rampant than primary brain cancers. Most common amongst these are breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, melanoma (skin cancer), sarcoma and neuroblastoma.
Brain Tumor
As mentioned earlier, a tumor may not necessarily be cancerous, but a cancer inevitably is a manifestation of malignant tumor cells. Thus, if there are tumor cells in the brain, and they get malignant, it leads to cancer. Primary brain cancer is caused when healthy and normal cells mutate. However, primary cases are less in number as compared to secondary cases.
Environmental Factors
Exposure to vinyl chloride is another factor that causes brain cancer. Certain products made of plastic have this cancer causing agent. These could be plastic parts of a car, household items, and types of wires.
Other Causes
Other causes include smoking, HIV/Aids infection, and work involving formaldehyde and acrylonitrile. There are other factors too, like age, race, and sex. Men are apparently more prone to cancer than women.
Although these are the most obvious causes, there is still a lot of research going on as to why and how exactly this happens and why these cells go in a tizzy and create problems for the body.