Signs and symptoms
Common symptoms include, but are not necessarily limited to: * Lack of facial control (droopy eyelids) * Double vision * Headache or headache that gets better after vomiting * Nausea and vomiting * Weakness and fatigue * Seizures * Balance problems * Numbness in face Symptoms can develop slowly and subtly and may go unnoticed for months. In other cases, the symptoms may arise abruptly. A sudden onset of symptoms tends to occur with more rapidly growing, high-grade tumors.Cause
The cause is still unknown. Researchers have not found any direct genetic link.Diagnosis
Neuroimaging, such as MRI, is the main diagnostic tool for brain stem gliomas. In very rare cases, surgery and biopsy are performed.Treatment
Unlike most brain tumors, brainstem glioma is not often treated with neurosurgery due to complications in vital parts of the brain. More often, it is treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy (though past use of radiation therapy has yielded mixed results). However, these treatments do produce side effects; most often including nausea, the breakdown of the immune system, and fatigue. Hair loss can occur from both chemotherapy and radiation, but usually grows back after chemotherapy has ceased.Prognosis
Brainstem glioma is an aggressive and dangerous cancer. Without treatment, the life expectancy is typically a few months from the time of diagnosis. With appropriate treatment, 37% survive more than one year, 20% survive 2 years. and 13% survive 3 years. This is not for all brainstem glioma, this statistic reflects DIPG. There are other brainstem gliomas.Research
Tumour Tissue Analysis
* Children's National Medical Center, Washington DC: Comprehensive Protein Analysis (Proteomic Profiling) of Pediatric Brainstem Gliomas using Paraffin Embedded Tissues * Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Our hypothesis is that unravelling the genomic alterations of diffuse infiltrating pontine gliomas or DIPGs will lead to improved understanding of the biology of such tumours and improved therapeutic options. * National Institutes of Health: DNA Analysis of Tumor Tissue Samples using Paraffin-Embedded Blocks from Patients with Diffuse Pontine Glioma *St. Jude Children's Research Hospital:Our goal is to perform an extensive genetic analysis of tumor samples obtained from patients with DIPG. * St. Jude Children's Research Hospital:Gene sequencing project discovers mutations tied to deadly brain tumors in young children * UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center:New system uses nanodiamonds to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to brain tumors * UT Southwestern Medical Center:Researchers identify a switch that controls growth of most aggressive brain tumor cells * The Institute of Cancer Research, London:Genetic flaw may hold key to deadly childhood brain tumour *Imaging Research
* Children's Hospital Los Angeles: Pilot Study, Predicting response to radiation therapy by evaluating choline levels with MRS before and after radiotherapy * Children's of Los Angeles: Imaging Study, Impact of steroids on metabolism of tumours (animal research) * DIPG Registry:See also
* Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomaFootnotes
References
* Foer, Dana R, and Paul G. Fisher.External links
{{Central nervous system tumors Nervous system neoplasia