Free Short Essay on Brain Tumour

Brain tumour are generally divided into primary or secondary tumours and then may be further classified into either being gliomas or non-gliomas. Primarily radiotherapy and chemotherapy are used in symptoms alleviation and prolongation of survival since these tumours are incurable. Treatments depend on many different variables such as type of tumour, size of tumour and location, tumour grade, patient’s age, the performance status and finally on tumour being primary or secondary tumour. The prognostic factors (PFs) in malignant gliomas (MGs) are patient’s age, Karnofsky performance status (KPS) score, tumour grade, and treatment (removal of tumour by surgery and postoperative therapy) (Fischbach et al 1991, Salcman et al 1994 and Winger et al 1989). Currently research focus is also into identifying molecular and genetic alteration PFs in the gliomas. However in elderly, the performance status and neurological function have the paramount importance in determining best therapy (Stupp et al 2007). A recent study into the role of HIF1a in Grade III and IV patients concluded that increase in level of HIF1a has positive correlation with increasing histological grade so therefore it has paramount importance in predicting overall survival. The further research into biomarkers of gliomas may increase our understanding and may help to identify appropriate combination of therapies.