Overview
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth or mass of cells in or around your brain. Together, spinal tumors and brain tumors are called central nervous system (CNS) tumors.
Brain tumors can be malignant (cancerous) or benign (noncancerous). Some tumors grow quickly, while others are slow growing.
Only about one-third of brain tumors are cancerous. But whether they’re cancerous or not, brain tumors can impact brain function and your health if they grow large enough to press on surrounding nerves, blood vessels and tissue.
Signs and symptoms
The signs and symptoms of a brain tumor depend on the brain tumor’s size and location. Symptoms also might depend on how fast the brain tumor is growing, which is also called the tumor grade.
General signs and symptoms caused by brain tumors may include:
- Headache or pressure in the head that is worse in the morning.
- Headaches that happen more often and seem more severe.
- Headaches that are sometimes described as tension headaches or migraines.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Eye problems, such as blurry vision, seeing double or losing sight on the sides of your vision.
- Losing feeling or movement in an arm or a leg.
- Trouble with balance.
- Speech problems.
- Feeling very tired.
- Confusion in everyday matters.
- Memory problems.
- Having trouble following simple commands.
- Personality or behavior changes.
- Seizures, especially if there is no history of seizures.
- Hearing problems.
- Dizziness or a sense that the world is spinning, also called vertigo.
- Feeling very hungry and gaining weight.
A mechanistic finding for glioblastoma shows mitochondria transfer to tumor cells is common and makes the cancer more aggressive.
Glioblastoma cancer cells use mitochondria from the central nervous system to grow and form more aggressive tumors, according to new Cleveland Clinic findings published in Nature Cancer.
The research showed that it’s common for healthy astrocytes – a type of glial cell with important functions in the central nervous system – to transfer the energy-producing organelles to glioblastoma cancer cells. When this process happens, it makes the cancer more deadly and the tumors more likely to grow. Researchers found that acquiring mitochondria boosted energy production and amplified cancer stem cells – cells with properties that already make cancer more difficult to treat.
“Defining the complex interactions glioblastoma cells have with the brain and nervous system is critical for developing new treatments,” says Justin Lathia, PhD, staff in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences and the Melvin H. Burkhardt Endowed Chair for Neuro-Oncology Clinical Research. “We knew that this type of transfer was theoretically possible, but we didn’t know how relevant and dangerous it was in brain tumors.”
Cancers, including glioblastoma, are resilient in part because of resources in the environment, capitalizing on the body’s natural defenses to protect cancer cells. By determining how cancer cells interact with healthy cells to survive, researchers can design new treatments to block cancer from growing or resisting treatment.
This study investigated mitochondria transfer in glioblastoma, the most common and deadly type of primary brain cancer. The paper’s first co-authors are Dionysios C. Watson, MD, PhD, previously of Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, and Defne Bayik, PhD, previously of Cleveland Clinic. Both are now at University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Overview
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth or mass of cells in or around your brain. Together, spinal tumors and brain tumors are called central nervous system (CNS) tumors.
Brain tumors can be malignant (cancerous) or benign (noncancerous). Some tumors grow quickly, while others are slow growing.
Only about one-third of brain tumors are cancerous. But whether they’re cancerous or not, brain tumors can impact brain function and your health if they grow large enough to press on surrounding nerves, blood vessels and tissue.
Signs and symptoms
The signs and symptoms of a brain tumor depend on the brain tumor’s size and location. Symptoms also might depend on how fast the brain tumor is growing, which is also called the tumor grade.
General signs and symptoms caused by brain tumors may include:
- Headache or pressure in the head that is worse in the morning.
- Headaches that happen more often and seem more severe.
- Headaches that are sometimes described as tension headaches or migraines.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Eye problems, such as blurry vision, seeing double or losing sight on the sides of your vision.
- Losing feeling or movement in an arm or a leg.
- Trouble with balance.
- Speech problems.
- Feeling very tired.
- Confusion in everyday matters.
- Memory problems.
- Having trouble following simple commands.
- Personality or behavior changes.
- Seizures, especially if there is no history of seizures.
- Hearing problems.
- Dizziness or a sense that the world is spinning, also called vertigo.
- Feeling very hungry and gaining weight.
A mechanistic finding for glioblastoma shows mitochondria transfer to tumor cells is common and makes the cancer more aggressive.
Glioblastoma cancer cells use mitochondria from the central nervous system to grow and form more aggressive tumors, according to new Cleveland Clinic findings published in Nature Cancer.
The research showed that it’s common for healthy astrocytes – a type of glial cell with important functions in the central nervous system – to transfer the energy-producing organelles to glioblastoma cancer cells. When this process happens, it makes the cancer more deadly and the tumors more likely to grow. Researchers found that acquiring mitochondria boosted energy production and amplified cancer stem cells – cells with properties that already make cancer more difficult to treat.
“Defining the complex interactions glioblastoma cells have with the brain and nervous system is critical for developing new treatments,” says Justin Lathia, PhD, staff in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences and the Melvin H. Burkhardt Endowed Chair for Neuro-Oncology Clinical Research. “We knew that this type of transfer was theoretically possible, but we didn’t know how relevant and dangerous it was in brain tumors.”
Cancers, including glioblastoma, are resilient in part because of resources in the environment, capitalizing on the body’s natural defenses to protect cancer cells. By determining how cancer cells interact with healthy cells to survive, researchers can design new treatments to block cancer from growing or resisting treatment.
This study investigated mitochondria transfer in glioblastoma, the most common and deadly type of primary brain cancer. The paper’s first co-authors are Dionysios C. Watson, MD, PhD, previously of Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, and Defne Bayik, PhD, previously of Cleveland Clinic. Both are now at University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.