Introduction
This National Cancer Institute (NCI) booklet (NIH Publication No. 02-1558) has important information
about
brain tumors.* It discusses
possible causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and followup care.
It also has information to help patients cope with brain tumors.
Primary and Secondary Brain Tumors
A tumor that begins in the brain is called a primary
brain tumor. In children, most brain tumors are primary tumors. In
adults, most tumors in the brain have spread there from the lung, breast,
or other parts of the body. When this happens, the disease is
not brain cancer. The tumor in the brain is a secondary tumor.
It is named for the organ or the tissue in which it began.
Treatment for secondary brain tumors depends on where the cancer
started and the extent of the disease.
|
Information specialists at the NCI's
Cancer Information Service
at 1-800-4-CANCER can answer questions about primary
and secondary brain tumors, and they can send NCI materials.
Many NCI publications and fact sheets can be viewed on the Internet at
http://www.cancer.gov/publications. People in the United States and its territories
may use this Web site to order publications. This Web site also explains
how people outside the United States can mail or fax their requests for
NCI publications.
*Words that may be new to readers appear in italics. The
Dictionary section explains these
terms. Some words in the Dictionary have a
"sounds-like" spelling to show how to pronounce them.
Next Section > |