Glioma Symptoms

Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
Updated on September 27, 2024
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For patients with glioma, they often exhibit certain degrees of headache and dizziness, with headaches typically located bilaterally in the frontal or temporal regions. The nature of the pain is relatively sharp, manifesting as intermittent attacks that progressively worsen over time. Long-standing gliomas easily induce a notable increase in intracranial pressure, presenting with severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, and even a decrease in vision or visual field defects. When the glioma is located in the parietal lobe and affects important motor function areas, it can lead to unilateral or bilateral limb weakness, numbness, pain, and possibly even trigger hemiplegia.

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Written by Guo Zhi Fei
Neurosurgery
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Glioma is a type of disease

Glioma is a very common malignant tumor in the brain, with malignancy levels divided into grades I, II, III, and IV. Grade I has the lowest malignancy, close to benign, and patients have a good prognosis after complete surgical removal. Grade IV gliomas have the highest malignancy and are also known as glioblastomas. These tumors do not have clear boundaries, making complete surgical removal impossible, and they are highly prone to recur after surgery, leading to poor prognosis. Even with the most advanced treatments, such as surgery combined with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and gene therapy, the average survival time is only 12-14 months, and without treatment, the average survival time is only four months.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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Treatment of brain glioma

For patients with brain gliomas, it is recommended that they visit a local hospital as soon as possible in the early stages of the disease. A physician with extensive surgical experience should help assess the current situation through cranial CT, cranial MRI, and enhanced cranial MRI scans, to determine the location, scope, and range of edema of the glioma, as well as its proximity to surrounding blood vessels and nerves, and to establish a personalized surgical treatment plan. Through surgery, the glioma in the brain should be removed as completely as possible. After surgical treatment, most patients can achieve satisfactory outcomes. However, since gliomas are malignant tumors, it is necessary to follow up surgery with early radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

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Written by Gao Yi Shen
Neurosurgery
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Glioma causes

In clinical practice, the etiology of gliomas is not very clear. It is not as straightforward as how smoking can easily lead to lung cancer or how cirrhosis can easily lead to liver cancer; many factors are speculative. For example, the most common theory in clinical practice involves genetics. Any form of genetic mutation or chromosomal mutation can induce the development of a glioma. For instance, excessive radiation exposure and drug abuse, and even maternal-fetal transmission or a genetic predisposition, could cause chromosomal abnormalities in patients, potentially leading to the formation of gliomas. However, the most fundamental cause has not yet been clearly identified.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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Is glioma a terminal illness?

Glioblastoma is not an incurable disease. Patients with glioblastoma have a type of malignant tumor that tends to grow rapidly. These tumors often adhere to surrounding brain tissue in the early stages, making complete surgical removal difficult. If any glioma cells remain after surgery, the tumor tissue will gradually grow over time. Thus, patients with glioblastoma are prone to recurrence, but it is not an incurable disease. If early detection and surgical removal can be achieved, and supplemented by radiotherapy and chemotherapy, it can maximize the therapeutic effects of the surgery, thereby effectively improving the prognosis and delaying the progression of the disease. This approach can relatively extend the patient's lifespan, and some patients may even achieve long-term survival.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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What are the symptoms of glioma?

Patients with gliomas often exhibit a range of symptoms including significant headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. As the tumor grows, it typically leads to an evident increase in intracranial pressure. Besides the original symptoms, some patients may also experience marked declines in vision, visual field deficits, and papilledema. The growth of the tumor inevitably compresses surrounding tissues, nerves, and blood vessels, leading to a variety of symptoms of neurological damage, such as noticeable hemiplegia, aphasia, and even abnormal sensations in one side of the body, characterized by numbness, pain, and a pins-and-needles sensation.