Consultant neuro and spinal surgeon Dr Riaz Ahmed Raja has underlined the need of adopting effective strategy against increasing cases of brain tumor and said that people could avoid the disease by adopting preventive measures.
Talking to media here on Monday, Department of the Neurosurgery Liquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, assistant professor said that the exact cause of most brain tumors, with tumors elsewhere in the body, is unknown.
He said many of the factors have been proposed as possible risk factors for primary brain tumors, but whether some factors actually increase an individual’s risk of a brain tumor is not known for sure. Elaborating causes of Brain Cancer, he informed that radiation to the head, an inherited (genetic) risk, HIV infection, Cigarette smoking and environmental toxins (for example, chemicals used in oil refineries, embalming chemicals, rubber industry chemicals) may cause cancer.
About its symptoms, Dr Riaz Ahmed Raja informed that not all brain tumors had symptoms and some were found mainly after death. The symptoms of brain tumors were numerous and not specific to brain tumors, meaning they can be caused by many other illnesses as well. The only way to know for sure what is causing the symptoms was to undergo diagnostic testing.
He said the symptoms were caused by the tumor pressing on or encroaching on other parts of the brain and keeping them from functioning normally. He further informed that swelling in the brain caused by the tumor or surrounding inflammation causes some symptoms and the symptoms of primary and metastasis brain cancers were similar.
