Nuclear Oncology

Posts Tagged ‘Brain tumor’

External beam radiation therapy (EBT) is a method for managing a beam of high energy x-rays to patient’s tumor. The beam is produced outside the patient (usually a linear accelerator, see below) and goes to the tumor. These high-energy X-rays can deposit their dose in the area where the tumor to kill cancer cells and careful planning to avoid affecting surrounding normal tissue. No radiation sources are placed inside the patient’s body.

External beam radiation therapy is used to treat these diseases as well as many others:

* Breast cancer
* Colorectal cancer (colon and rectum)
* Head and neck cancer
* Lung cancer
* Prostate Cancer
* Brain tumors
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A brain tumor is a group of abnormal cells growing in the brain or around it. Tumors can directly destroy healthy brain cells. They can also indirectly damage to invade other parts of the brain and cause inflammation, brain swelling and pressure inside the skull.

Brain tumors can be malignant or benign. A malignant tumor, also called brain cancer, grows rapidly and often invades the healthy areas of the brain. Benign tumors do not contain cancer cells. Watching them look normal under a microscope, usually grow slowly.

Brain tumors can be of two types: primary or metastatic. Primary brain tumors originate in the brain, and metastatic cancer cells appear when another part of the body spread to the brain. Therefore, metastatic brain tumors are almost always malignant, while primary tumors may be benign or malignant.

Brain tumors are classified according to tumor location, type of tissue involved, if the tumor is benign or malignant, and other factors. If it is determined that a tumor is malignant, the cells are examined under a microscope to determine their degree of malignancy. According to this analysis, tumors classified by their degree of malignancy from least to most malignant. Some factors that determine tumor grade are the growth rate of cells, the amount of blood supplied to the cells, the presence of dead cells in the center of the tumor (necrosis), if cells are confined to a specific area, and the degree of similarity between cancer cells and normal cells. Read the rest of this entry »