Early detection of brain tumors in children

Brain tumors are abnormal growth of a type of nerve cell and ranks second in childhood cancers. The incidence of primary cancer is about 2-3 / 100,000 children, male is more than female. This is a dangerous and life-threatening disease of children, so it should be detected early for timely treatment.

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Brain tumor (Photo: ND)

Children complain of headaches, nausea, walking at a fast and slow pace, staggering. Children may look unclear, the shape of the object when they look distorted. Young personality becomes deep or fierce, or irritable. When infected, the child will become slow or not gain weight or height. If the child has gone to school, the quality of learning is reduced, and many parents do not know that the child suffers from the disease and think that the child is busy playing so it leads to poor learning results. Many children also suffer from speech deformity, suddenly the child speaks silently, stuttering, pronouncing words not as usual. On the other hand, the child also shows tiredness, or falls asleep.

Common neurological symptoms

Big head, bulging bulging, dilated skull joints. Eyes with thorny edema, drooping eyelashes, dilated pupils, disproportionate pupils, strabismus, loss of vision. Children lose balance, lose coordination, increase reflexes. Many cases suffer from nerve paralysis No. 7, or hemiplegia, or paralysis of the lower extremities. Children may be confused, dazed or lethargic. If you have a full examination, you will see a slow growth, early or late puberty, stiff neck.

Classify

Brain tumors are divided into two types: tumors in the brain tent and posterior tumors. Depending on the location of the tumor, there are clinical manifestations for tumors in the cerebellum tent:

* Hemisphere : This tumor develops slowly every year that clinically only shows convulsions or headaches. Often discovered when the size of a large tumor causes increased pressure on the brain or uncontrolled convulsions. When the tumor is too big, rupturing causes bleeding in the tumor, which increases the acute and critical level of the disease. U too big also squeezes the brain to block the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid. Most tumors progress in subacute, symptoms have months before.

When visiting, if the joint relaxes, the doctor easily knows that the tumor is in the brain. If the tumor is deep in the forehead less malignant, slow growth does not cause serious brain dysfunction. Most hemispheric tumors are glial cell tumors: astrocytes, dendritic cells.

* The cranial tumor: A type of tumor that develops in the pituitary area. Children with this type of tumor will suffer from vision loss due to visual invasive tumors, dwarfed by damage to the pituitary gland. However, some children only show headaches.

* Vision U : Meet in nerve fiber tumors, is a type of glioma, this is a disease that causes severe loss of vision.

* Pineal gland : Children with this type of tumor often get puberty early, have a syndrome of increased brain pressure.

* Ventricular tumors III : This is a type of tumor that invades the hypothalamus, manifests convulsions, appears laughter, early puberty, micro-disorder, behavior.

* Hippocampus : Clinical manifestations in this child sometimes only have hypertensive pressure syndrome, headache, obesity.

For posterior pit tumors, there are the following types:

* Neuroblastoma U : This is the most common type of tumor in children, tumors develop in the center of the cerebellum, ventricular IV, ventricular invasive IV, blockage of cerebrospinal fluid circulation, early dilatation ventricular. Children with this type of tumor will vomit, headache, have cerebellar syndrome, personality changes, insomnia, hypotonia . This type of tumor in the way of cerebrospinal fluid can spread to the spinal cord.

* Follicular astrocytoma U : This is the tumor of the cerebellar hemisphere, cyst-shaped circular tumor and fluid. This tumor has a large volume when developing, which deforms the cerebellum and ventricle IV.

* Brain stem : The beginning of this type of tumor is single poisoning of a nerve number 6, then the child is half weak, there are cases that appear to speak hard, speak lisp, drink choking water, choke, then proceed to weak half opposite side. There is also a type of glial cells. This type of tumor is very life-threatening, has a high prognosis of death within 6 months, can extend life if it is a nerve fiber.

The detection and diagnosis of the disease depends on the location and nature of the tumor. In which the general symptoms are increased pressure on the brain, headaches, vomiting, fatigue, changes in temperament, learning to decline, convulsions, in young children, the head is big. If the eye scans will show manifestations of papillae.

When the disease is detected, most cases must be operated in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In the process of treatment, children must be fed enough nutrients, avoid nervous stress, give them a healthy and happy environment.

Associate Professor - Dr. Ninh Thi Ung - Central Children's Hospital