A risk factor increases the likelihood of developing an illness like a brain or spinal cord tumor. The risk factors for various forms of cancer vary. Smoking, for example, is a modifiable risk factor. Others, such as your age or family history, are unchangeable.
However, having one or more risk factors does not automatically guarantee that a person will get the illness, and many people develop brain or spinal cord tumors while having no known risk factors.
Many distinct forms of tumors can begin in the brain or spinal cord, and while they may have certain characteristics, these tumors may not all share the same risk factors.
The majority of brain tumors have no recognized risk factors and no evident etiology. However, there are a few risk factors for brain tumors.
Age:
Brain tumors are more frequent in children and older individuals. However, it can occur at any age due to many other reasons.
Gender:
Men are often more prone than women to get a brain tumor. Some brain tumors, such as meningioma, Pituitary Adenoma, Craniopharyngioma, and Schwannoma are more frequent in women.
Exposures at home and at work:
Insecticides, solvents, rubber, oil products, or vinyl chloride exposure may raise the chance of getting a brain tumor. However, there is no scientific data to back up this probable relationship.
A family tree:
Hereditary genetic factors or disorders, such as nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, neurofibromatosis, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, and von Hippel-Lindau disease, may be associated with about 5% of brain cancers. Brain “clusters” has also been discovered by scientists.
Ancestral history:
Most persons who have brain tumors do not have a family history of them, but in rare circumstances, brain and spinal cord cancers do. In general, people with familial cancer syndromes have a high number of tumors that appear when they are young. Some of these families suffer from clearly characterized ailments, such as:
Type 2 neurofibromatosis (NF2)
This syndrome is connected with vestibular schwannomas, which virtually invariably develop on both sides of the head and are far less prevalent than NF1. It has also been related to a higher incidence of meningiomas and spinal cord ependymomas.
Neurofibromatosis type 2 is generally caused by mutations in the NF2 gene. The gene alterations, like NF1, are inherited in almost half of the cases. In the other half of the cases, they appear before birth in children with no family history.
Tuberous sclerosis (TS)
Subependymal giant cell astrocytomas (SEGAs) are low-grade astrocytomas that form underneath the ependymal cells of the ventricles in people with this illness. Other benign tumors of the brain, skin, heart, kidneys and other organs are possible.
Changes in either the TSC1 or TSC2 genes cause this disease. These gene alterations can be inherited from a parent, but they most typically appear in persons who have no family history.
Myths about cancer
Stories from a cancer hospital concerning probable reasons are frequently published in the media of cancer hospitals in Chennai and it is not always obvious whether views are supported by evidence. There may be some things you’ve heard that haven’t been mentioned. This is because there is either no proof or it is unclear.
There is no proof that brain tumors are induced by a head injury or a knock on the head, in particular.
