Glioblastomas are the most common serious brain tumors (stage 4) in adults. The causes are still poorly understood. What are the symptoms ? What are the treatments to cure it?
Glioblastoma is a stage 4 brain tumor i.e. very aggressive. Approximately every year 5000 new cases are diagnosed in France. The causes are not identified and the symptoms are highly variable although some have been put forward for diagnose disease. The vital prognosis is significantly engaged in the event of development of a glioblastoma. Is it hereditary ? And the symptoms? How treat glioblastoma? What life expectancy? Update on this disease with a poor prognosis which affects men more often than women and develops in the vast majority between 45 and 70 years old.
Definition: what is glioblastoma?
Glioblastoma is a brain tumor that affects astrocytes, central nervous system cells. It most often sits in the cerebral hemispheres but can be located anywhere in the central nervous system. Its development, generally very rapid, usually occurs between 2 and 3 months. There are primary glioblastomas and so-called secondary glioblastomas, resulting from the transformation of an initially harmless tumor into a malignant tumor. In the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD 10), glioblastoma is classified among malignant tumors of the brain: C71.
What is stage 4 glioblastoma?
Glioblastoma is a grade IV tumor, namely the most aggressive and with the darkest prognosis.
What causes glioblastoma?
Generally, glioblastoma develops without an identified cause. However, it would seem that theirradiation of the brain in the treatment of another pathology may promote its appearance a few years later.
Is glioblastoma hereditary?
Of the genetic and molecular abnormalities have also been put forward, whether for primary or secondary glioblastomas.
What are the symptoms of glioblastoma?
Symptoms of glioblastoma are highly variable and are not characteristic of the disease but rather of the location and size of the tumor which increases intracranial pressure. They go from headache, nausea and vomiting passing through mood or behavioral disturbances, limb weakness and sometimes epileptic seizures.
The interrogation highlights certain symptoms suggestive of the disease. One follows complete neurological examination which makes it possible to evaluate the level of functioning of the nervous system using various tests (reflexes, muscular exercises, language tests, etc.). In case of suspected cerebral pathology, CT scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain scans confirm the diagnosis and help localize the location of the tumor. A pathological examination (biopsy) can be carried out after localization of the latter if it is accessible to a sample. This is the only test that can confirm the diagnosis.
“Its standardized treatment goes through a excision surgery as complete as possible, supplemented by radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment for 6 weeks with a chemotherapy tablets (STUPP Protocol)“ explains Dr. Jean Ménard, oncologist “in the event of a good response, the treatment is completed by a continuation of chemotherapy in tablets 5 days per month for 6 months”.
What is the life expectancy when you have glioblastoma?
According to Dr. Jean Ménard, oncologist, “The prognosis of glioblastoma remains poor, with a 5-year survival of around 5%and a median survival rate between 14 and 18 months”.
Thanks to Dr. Jean Ménard, oncologist at Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris.