A relative of mine has recently been diagnosed with “something” growing in his brain. Originally, it was thought to be possibly a calcium deposit, but evidently, that has been ruled out.
These are the MRI results. If I’m reading this correctly, these are the two main candidates for what it could be…but I’m unsure of exactly what it all means.
Of course, the results will be interpreted by a professional in a couple of days–but if someone could explain this, it would help his family and friends move past the “we just have to wait” stage.
and
Forgive any spelling errors–I hand-copied this from scanned bitmaps of the original docs.
He has worked for several years with gasoline. Six or seven days a week, he’s breathing those fumes…but I don’t know how that would affect the above.
About 15 years ago, he was involved in a BAD motorcycle wreck–severe head damage was involved, but I don’t know the specifics.
There was no lasting apparent brain damage, though–the guy’s smart, as well as physically fit!
Jeepers. :eek: I’m sorry about your friend, SF. IANA neurologist, but you don’t need a neurologist to tell you he has a brain tumor. What you need to do is sit down with a medical dictionary and look stuff up.
(You can also look for other medical dictionaries on Google under “medical dictionary”.)
But it looks to me like the stuff you posted already answers your question.
He has a “mass” in his brain. That’s neurospeak for “tumor”. The rest of the sentence just says how big it is, and exactly where it’s located.
It could be one of several different kinds of tumors. You can go and look those up, but, again, the stuff you already posted seems to answer most of your questions. You can also do a Google search under “brain tumors” and get tons of info.
Overall, what you’ve posted doesn’t sound too bad. “None” of this, “none” of that. I am personally acquainted with a person who has recurring brain tumors, and she’s still walking around.
AFAIK there’s no direct correlation between exposure to gasoline fumes or being in a motorcycle accident with head damage, and developing brain tumors. It’s just one of those things.
Not too much to add to that. I am not a neurologist either but I work on cancer as a scientist so I know a little. The brain tumor is still quite small as tumors so it seems you’ve caught it early which is always a plus. All those different -noma names are tumors that arise from different populations of cells in the brain. SOme are worse than others. From the description it sounds like the one found is on eof the less dangerous types. All in all, the news sounds as positive as you get when starting with the phrase You have a brain tumor.
I appreciate the time you took looking this stuff up and responding.
We tried looking up most of the terms, but that really only led us to looking more terms…it was confusing to say the least.
For instance, who knew that the brain has ventricals…on first reading, I thought what’s his heart got to do with anything?
The appointment with the Neurologist turned out to be an appointment with a Neurosurgeon instead…the distinction still being a bit murky to me.
The good news (paradoxically enough) is that he’s evidently had the tumor for a very long time. According to the doctor, it’s probably grown as much as it’s going to…and since it hasn’t killed him yet, it probably won’t.
It’s inoperable, but that doesn’t matter because it isn’t harming him, and it’s not responsible for the headaches which prompted the MRI…and that strikes me as very odd–something can grow in an organ as important as the brain without causing any real problems.
Well, if nothing else, this is certainly a learning experience!
Thank you for the link, DDG…and best wishes to your friend with the tumors.
Thank you for your encouragement, Verrain. It’s appreciated.
A neurosurgeon can perform brain surgery. A neurologist cannot, just as an orthopedic surgeon can operate while an orthopedist cannot. And you dare not call an orthopedic surgeon an orthoedist. They take umbrage at that slight.
A “mass” is a mass and altho IANAN or even a doctor this does not necessarily mean a tumor, IMHO. Altho all the diagnoses are tumors, it could be a cyst. The fact that it does not appear to be aggressive indicates that it is probably benign.
I should note that “ventricle” is just a generic anatomical term and there are structures called ventricles in the brain as well as the heart.
This is something you really should be dealing with directly with your neurosurgeon. There are cancerous tumors that are nonmalignant, and there are noncancerous tumors that are terminal. Only the neurosurgeon knows what is going on. Neurosurgery is heavy duty surgery, but they’ve gotten a lot better at it, and with MRI and other high-tech scans, you stand a lot better chance of discovering these tumors when they’re still easily operable.
I am not a neurologist but I am a doctor. Let me see if I can translate.
An MRI is a scan that can look at the brain in several ways, T1 and T2. Your friend has a mass. It is not a cyst becuase an MRI would have shown this. It enhances with contrast meaning there is blood flow to the mass (it is not “dead tissue”). It could be one of a number of tumors.
Brain tumors do not usually spread to distant areas (metastasize) so they are classified as benign or malignant based on how fast they grow. They cannot tell from the scan exactly which form of tumor your friend has.
The only way to tell would be to do a biopsy of the area, which is why your friend saw a neuroSURGEON, who does surgery on the brain. By what you posted, it looks like this growth cannot be easily biopsied but does not appear to be growing quickly. They will probably watch it with periodic scans.
A neurologist, in contast, treats neurologic diseases (brain diseases) that do not require surgery, such as Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, of Strokes. An Orthopedist is just another name for an Orthopedic Surgeon (the closest non-surgical specialist to an Orthopedic Surgeon would probably be a Rheumatologist) but there is a distinction between, for example, a Cardiologist (treats heart disease without surgery) and a Cardiac Surgeon (does surgery on the heart). Hope this helps a little.
This is not on the OP, but I see a lot of doctors at the MUSC wellness center and I said to one, “Oh, you’re an orthopedist.” He said, quite miffed, “I am an orthopedic **SURGEON [/B}”
Just a note to confirm what several people above had said.
I’m not an MD, but I’m Assistant Director of a hospital Radiology Department. (Translation - I perform CT scans on patients all morning, and do mounds of paperwork all afternoon)
Let’s look on the bright side; if you gotta have a brain tumor, this is the kind you want. Since it is in a ventrical and not in the brain tissue itself, it’s not putting any pressure on the brain tissue, or restricting blood flow to the brain. Also, as noted in the radiology report, there is no abnormality in the midline structures and no mid line shift. (Again, this is because the mass is in a ventrical, and is not pushing against brain tissue.)
I would guess that your relative’s doctor will recommend periodic re-scans, every year or so, even if no new symptoms develop to check for growth of the mass.
Well, IANAD, but my mother was diagnosed this week with a meningioma. This is also a benign type tumor of the brain. My mom went to see a Neurosurgeon to see what the next step should be. There is something new that doctors are using as an alternative to surgery but still does the job if the tumor must be removed. It is called the gamma knife. Apparently it is non-invasive, using radiation to get rid of the tumor. I wasn’t able to go to the appointment with her, so I don’t have all of the details. I do know that she was told that the larger brain tumors get the faster they grow and that even benign tumors can become cancer if they get big enough. So the best option is usually to remove the tumor. It is very new and to my knowledge there is only 1 hospital in our region that has it. Another hospital will have it in 6 months, because it is a universtiy teaching hospital. Surgery is not a bad option, but if the gamma knife works just as well, it is probably alot less traumatic for a person to go through. Have your friend ask his doctor about it. If you live near a large city, I am sure they will have it. I hope all goes well with your friend.
