Are headaches associated with brain tumors benign or malignant?

Every patient is unique in terms of experiencing the symptoms of any underlying disease. The same is the case for brain tumors. Brain tumors tend to be constant and are sometimes worse at night or in the early morning. Some patients describe headaches associated with brain tumors to be dull and “pressure-type” while some mention it as “stabbing pain”. The headache associated with brain tumors is localized to specific areas. The condition becomes worse when the person is feeling cold and coughing with sneezing and straining. A headache caused by a brain tumor may respond to the medications in the early stages. But, it becomes more resistant with time.

Kamineni Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital in Hyderabad. The hospital serves to provide the majority of specialties that are government-approved. The hospital has experience in providing in-patient and out-patient services at the sole responsibility of the whole organization. Kamineni Hospital lets you diagnose the underlying disorder with the help of the latest technology. The staff is educated and trained to provide a peaceful environment for the sake of the patient’s treatment.

The pattern of headache during brain tumor stages

• The pattern of headache does not give the clue to doctors about the health of the patient. Some patients with malignant tumors have no headache at all. And there are certain who suffer small benign tumors and it can cause deliberate headaches.
• The evaluation of the physician is based on imaging studies like CT scans or MRI. These studies provide necessary information regarding the health status of the patient.
• Talking about the health of the brain, it does not possess any kind of pain receptors. But, several mechanisms can help to define the type of disorder with just one severe headache.
• The fact is that tumors inside the brain increase the pressure inside the skull that is called intracranial pressure. This causes the stretching of dura- the covering of the brain and spinal cord. It can be painful and create several other severe disorders.

Relationship between headaches and brain tumor

Headaches do not merely indicate the type of disease. Experiencing a headache from time to time can be a medical emergency. On the other hand, brain tumors lead to several headaches that are persistent and constant. According to the researchers, around 50% of people experience headaches due to brain tumors. Brain tumors are said to cause a distinct type of headache that is different from migraine and other tension-type headaches.

Headaches due to brain tumors have following characteristics:

• Persistent and unusual pain in the head (for people with no case history of severe headaches)
• The headache may become severe during the early morning
• Can make the person wake up in the middle of the night
• Get worse with time
• It lasts for several days and weeks
• It is worse in the situation if the person is facing cough and other changing positions of health status
• Can occur alongside vomiting

It is important to note that there can be other medical conditions accompanied by these similar characteristics of headache. For example, sleep disorders, sleep apnea, insomnia, etc can also lead to morning headaches.

Headaches and their connection with other underlying disorders or diseases

• Although headaches are the persistent cause of brain tumors, they can lead to many other common disorders or diseases and even cancer.
• A person with persistent headaches can also have other underlying disorders like tension headache, or migraine.
• Sometimes, headaches occur in daily clusters. It lasts a few days and more than a week at the same time like before or after eating food, in the night before sleeping, etc. Moreover, the cause of cluster headaches is still unknown.

How far does the brain tumor come out to be malignant?

Unlike other cancers, a brain tumor is classified based on its pathologic characteristics. It depends on how the cells appear under the setting of the microscope. The stages or grade of brain tumor follows as:

1. Grade 1: It is noncancerous or slow-growing
2. Grade 2: The stage is malignant but slow-growing. The cells possess the potential to spread to other body parts.
3. Grade 3: The stage is malignant and develops more quickly in comparison to grade 1 and 2 tumors.
4. Grade 4: This stage develops abnormal features and characteristics. The body starts behaving unusually. The body develops the tumor rapidly and the cancer is aggressive.

There are around 23.8 percent of adults in every 100,000 persons suffering from brain tumors. One-third of brain tumors remain at the malignant stage or at the borderline of being malignant. In children, the rate is much lower. It is around 6.1 percent of every 100,000 children from 0 to 19 years of age. There is a slightly higher percentage of primary brain tumors in children in comparison to adults around 60 by 30 percent in ratio.

Brain tumors are graded from stage 1 to stage 4. It depends on how fast they grow and how likely they are to come back after the treatment. A malignant brain tumor occurs at grade 3 or 4 while grade 1 or 2 of tumor stages are benign or non-cancerous. Most of the malignant tumors are secondary cancers. They start developing in distant parts of the body. Primary tumors start primarily in the brain.

Conclusion

The best approach to protect yourself from headaches associated with brain or even brain tumors is to educate yourself. Try to gain knowledge on the pattern of the headache, symptoms, and occurrence of headache in case of a brain tumor.

If you are confused about the type of disorders, you can consult the doctors of Kamineni Hospital. They all provide first-hand knowledge to their patients. The staff of the Kamineni Hospital believes in intervening in the gaps in the knowledge between patients and medical science.