Types Of Head Tumors
According to the World Health Organization, there are slightly over 120 types of head tumors, that can be classified according to the origin of the cell and the way these abnormal cells behave, and according to their degree of aggressive; less aggressive types of head tumors are called benign cancers, while more aggressive ones are called malignant. Since this is a rather short articles that aims only to introduce to this serious medical condition, we are only going to discuss the more common types of head tumors.
On the top of the list of all the infamous types of head tumors are metastatic brain tumors: such tumors start as cancers in some part of the body (other than the brain) and are then carried over to the brain through the blood stream or through lymphatic fluid. The process of cancerous cells moving from one body part to another is called metastases, and since that other part is the brain, hence the name metastatic brain tumors. Not all kinds of tumors are likely to metastasize to the brain; most metastatic brain tumors originate from cancers in the lungs, the breast, the kidneys, the colon, or even the skin, and in general they are far more common in middle-aged and elderly people rather than in younger people or children.
CNS lymphoma is a an example of cancer that metastasizes through the lymph nodes, since it is a cancer that specifically affects the lymphatic system, which is responsible for the production of lymphocytes, the white blood cells in the human body that are employed to fight off the various bodily infections. CNS lymphoma can cause tumors throughout the central nervous system, but more often than not it causes brain tumors in the areas that are adjacent to the ventricular system.
Another type of head tumors is that of acoustic neuroma, otherwise known as vestibular schwannoma and neurilemmoma. It is a head tumor that grows at the area around the eighth cranial nerve (as well as other cranial nerves), and it is caused by an abnormal development of the cells around nerve fibers that are supposedly there to protect those nerve fibers.
The third most common among the various types of head tumors are pituitary tumors, that as the name suggests are formed in the pituitary gland. Since the pituitary gland is the gland responsible for hormonal production, pituitary tumors can cause all sorts of hormonal problems: from hair loss/growth to depressions, and from abnormal gain weight to impotence (in the case of men).
Other types of head tumors are meningiomas, chrodomas, craniopharyngiomas, and various types of gliomas; while some common types of head tumors more common in children are brain stem gliomas, ependymomas, meduloblastomas, rhabdoid tumors, and juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas.
There is no one solution that applies to all types of head tumors; there are cases where surgical removal of the tumor might be the best treatment; there are cases where surgical removal of the tumor might be the best treatment; in some cases, chemotherapy might be the only viable solution; while in others, a patient might just need certain medication that will simply shrink the tumor.
Needless to say, however, that all types of head tumors are the most dangerous kind of cancer a person can have.
