Brain tumours in children

[KatiePul]

I feel so sad for my friend and utterly useless I just need to vent.
She has just discovered her beautiful little girl has a brain tumour and will be operated on tomorrow.
I am ignorant when it comes to brain tumours, does anyone have any knowledge on the subject?

Sending all my prayers her way xxxxx

No real knowledge but couldn;t pass with without replying.

I feel with these things it is best to try and accept that anything could happen from her recoving completley and all being fine to her being very poorly.

However - cancer treatment is amazing these days!!!

How horrid, puts my DDs chicken pox into perspective.

Benign (non cancerous) tumours occur in children and adults. sometimes they can be easily removed whole as they are in a self contained capsule. Sometimes they occur in a difficult to reach area or are attached to vital nerves, eg optic nerve. In this case they can be more problematic and can leave permanent damage, but are often removable.
If left they will continue to grow and eventually kill as the skull is a non expanding box, but generally prognosis is good and full recovery made.

Cancerous tumours of the brain are not nice as they entwine themselve round important nerves or infiltrate brain matter. They aim to remove as much as possible then treat with radiotherapy. They can use chemo but it is not as good as the brain is protected by the blood/brain barrier which filters out substances toxic to the brain - good thing normally but restricts chemotherapy usage. Cancerous tumours often recur because it is difficult to 'get' all the tumour cells, and the long term prognosis in many cases is not good.

Sorry but dont know ratio of non (benign) and cancerous (malignant) tumours and it will depend on the biopsy following the op. I sincerely hope your friend has good news as I cant imagine much worse things to go through.

There are various support organisations you can contact, but I have no experience of the most appropriate. Just be a good listener and be as positive for her as you can. xx

Thank you so much for that advice, I really appreciate your kind words.

Tumours in little children are often a result of their fetal deveopment, something doesn't quite develop the way it should. They stage them, this means they will look at them to see how big they are and how much of the rest of the tissue they spread into. The most common sort of tumour in a small child is a neuroblastoma. The prognosis rate, as with all cancers, depends on how much it has spread. They will biopsy it to see if it's benign or malignant, generally a neuroblastoma if caught before it invades other cells has a good prognosis.

www.neuroblastoma.org.uk/index.html These folks are really helpful.

I wish you all well, you are a very good friend to be asking for advice.

Tumours in little children are often a result of their fetal deveopment, something doesn't quite develop the way it should. They stage them, this means they will look at them to see how big they are and how much of the rest of the tissue they spread into. The most common sort of tumour in a small child is a neuroblastoma. The prognosis rate, as with all cancers, depends on how much it has spread. They will biopsy it to see if it's benign or malignant, generally a neuroblastoma if caught before it invades other cells has a good prognosis.

www.neuroblastoma.org.uk/index.html These folks are really helpful.

I wish you all well, you are a very good friend to be asking for advice.

My dd had a brain tumour and was operated on when she was 18 months old. Hers was benign although she was left with mild hemiplegia because of where the tumour was located. We were told that a benign tumour would mean no more treatment although malignant tumours are a different thing altogether. My dd was too young for chemo or radiotherapy to be of any used although this was 11 years ago so things might have changed now. If she had had her tumour 10 years earlier she would have died as the technology wasn't around to remove the tumour. I suppose I am saying in a long-winded way is that there are many sorts of tumour and treatment is changing all the time.

I expect that your friends are in a scary place at the moment. I remember a lot of people found our situation difficult to deal with, a bit like crossing the road to avoid a bereaved person, so if you are able to visit and offer emotional and practical support it will be very valued.

I hope there is a positive outcome.