What is Meningioma?
Meningioma is a slow growing and usually benign tumor arising from the membranes that surround the brain. They cause some symptoms by putting pressure on the brain tissue with ongoing growth. Because they are mostly benign, they do not tend to spread to other parts of the body, unlike cancerous tumors. However, as such tumors grow, they can lead to serious neurological disorders. Meningioma usually occurs in the 40s and later and it is more common in women than men. Persistent headaches, hormonal disorders, vision loss, epileptic seizures, paralysis may be the signs of advanced meningiomas.
What are types of meningiomas?
- Slow growing grade (benign meningioma)
- Faster growing grade (atypical meningioma)
- Fast growing and rapidly spreading grade (malignant meningioma, cancerous)
What causes meningiomas?
The exact cause of meningioma formation is not known exactly. However, researches suggest that the following factors play a role in the formation of meningiomas;
- Head trauma
- Genetic predisposition
- Exposure to radiation
- Pregnancy etc. hormonal changes
What are the symptoms of meningioma?
Meningiomas can occur in any location of the brain. Therefore, it may show different symptoms. When surrounding tissues and vessels are affected by meningioma, the treatment of the disease can be difficult. Since meningioma usually develops slowly, it may not cause any symptoms until it grows. The symptoms that can be seen depending on the growth are as follows;
- Nausea
- Headache
- Vision and hearing loss
- Loss of sense of smell
- Difficulty in thinking
- Feeling of weakness in the arm or leg
- Epileptic seizures
- Loss of balance
- Tinnitus,
- Difficuly swallowing
How is meningioma diagnosed?
Meningiomas are often difficult to diagnose because they progress slowly and do not cause symptoms in the initial phase. Having obtained detailed medical history and meticuluous examination; magnetic resonance (MR) and computerized tomography (CT) techniques are used to diagnose these brain tumors.
How is meningioma treated?
Surgery is the first option of treatment. However, some meningiomas may not be completely removed. Surgical interventions may carry risks in some cases. In such cases, gamma knife radio surgery is among the options applied in rare cases. This technique can also be used for patients with residual or regrowth of post-surgical tumors.
Meningiomas-which are discovered by chance/accidentally in MRI and tomography imaging performed for different diseases- can be kept under observation and follow-up without treatment they remain asymptomatic.
Most meningiomas are suitable for microsurgical removal. The surgical decision is made according to the general health status of the person, the size of the tumor and its location.
For gamma knife treatment, the tumor must be of sufficient size not more than 10 mm cube in most instances. The aim of this treatment is to stop the growth of the tumor, shrink it or even eliminate it. With Gamma knife technology, stopping or reducing the growth of tumors provides almost 95% success in small meningiomas with a diameter of less than 3 cm.