World Brain Tumour Day 2025: Early Diagnosis And Awareness Key To Brain Health For All Ages

Every year, June 8th is observed as World Brain Tumour Day, a global initiative to raise awareness about brain tumours, their symptoms, treatment, and the importance of early detection. The theme for 2025, "Brain Health for All Ages," underscores the need for vigilant brain care across all demographics—children, adults, and the elderly alike. 

Dr. V. Bramha Prasad, Consultant Neuro Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Secunderabad shares early diagnosis and awareness key to brain health for all ages on this World Brain Tumor Day 2025.

A brain tumour is an abnormal mass of tissue where cells grow uncontrollably, disrupting normal brain function. Unlike healthy cells that follow the body’s biological rules, tumour cells grow unchecked, compressing or invading brain structures. This growth within the rigid confines of the skull can elevate intracranial pressure, shift brain structures, or damage nerves and tissues. Tumours may remain within the central nervous system (CNS)—comprising the brain and spinal cord—and rarely spread elsewhere.

Brain tumours are classified as primary (originating in the brain) or metastatic (spread from another part of the body). Primary tumours may be glial (gliomas) or nonglial (arising from brain structures like nerves and blood vessels). Metastatic tumours, which are more common, often result from cancers of the lungs, breast, or other organs.

Recognizing the Symptoms

Early symptoms can mimic other medical conditions, making diagnosis difficult. In adults, common signs include:

• Persistent headaches, worse in the morning
• Seizures or convulsions
• Nausea or vomiting
• Speech or cognitive difficulties
• Personality changes
• Weakness or paralysis on one side
• Vision disturbances and memory loss

In children, symptoms may present differently and subtly, such as:

• Morning vomiting without nausea
• Balance or coordination issues
• Increasing head size in infants
• Vision problems, unexplained irritability, or drowsiness

If any of these symptoms persist or worsen over time, consulting a doctor is crucial for accurate diagnosis.

Malignant vs. Benign Tumours

While not all brain tumours are cancerous, they can be life-threatening due to their location. Malignant tumours (e.g., glioblastomas) grow aggressively and infiltrate surrounding tissue. Benign tumours, though slower-growing, may still pose serious risks if located near critical brain structures.

Brain tumours are graded using the World Health Organization (WHO) classification system, which helps predict tumour behavior and guides treatment decisions. It's worth noting that even benign tumours may evolve into malignant forms, and both types can recur after treatment. 

 

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Diagnosis and Treatment

 

Diagnosis typically involves:

• Neurological examinations
• Imaging (MRI or CT scans)
• Biopsy for tumour typing

Treatment is often multidisciplinary, involving neurosurgeons, oncologists, and radiologists. Approaches may include:

• Surgery – to remove or reduce tumour size
• Radiation therapy – to destroy remaining tumour cells
• Chemotherapy – for aggressive or inoperable tumours

Treatment plans vary depending on the tumour's type, location, and the patient’s age and overall health. Some tumours enter remission, where they stop growing. However, recurrent tumours may develop, requiring continuous follow-up and imaging.

 

 

Sepsis Will Kill More People as Compared to Deaths Caused by Heart Attacks and Cancer by 2050, Say Experts

Due to the irrational use of antibiotics, sepsis is a potentially life-threatening complication. It can cause more death by 2050, says doctors and health experts.

Sepsis is a syndromic response to infection and is frequently a final common pathway to death from many infectious diseases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. 

A study published in the Lancet journal showed that in 2017 there were 48.9 million cases and 11 million sepsis-related deaths worldwide, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of all global deaths. 

The study also revealed that India has a higher death rate from sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction response to infections, than other South Asian countries except Afghanistan.

“Sepsis will kill more people than cancer or heart attack by 2050 — it is going to be the biggest killer. Also in developing countries like India, multi-drug resistance due to gross overuse of antibiotics is probably causing a higher mortality,” said Yatin Mehta, Chairman, Institute of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology, Medanta — The Medicity, Gurugram.

This is because sepsis can be caused by many common diseases such as dengue, malaria, UTIs or even diarrhoea.

Mehta was speaking at the recently held Sepsis Summit India 2021, organised by the health awareness institution — Integrated Health and Wellbeing (IHW) Council.

Besides the use of antibiotics, the experts also noted the lack of awareness and early diagnosis. They called for increasing awareness and education regarding sepsis at the ground level.

“Despite advancement in medicine, tertiary care hospitals see 50-60 per cent patients getting sepsis and septic shock. Awareness, and early diagnosis are needed, and unnecessary antibiotic therapy should be avoided,” Mehta said.

“Sepsis has not been given the recognition it deserves and this is very much on the backburner from the policy point of view. We need to have Standard Operating Procedures and we need to flag sepsis cases in researches by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), continuing medical education (CME), and it should be taken up on priority by policymakers,” added Lov Verma, former Union Health Secretary of Health, Indian government.

While it is a leading cause of death in newborns and pregnant women, sepsis also affects older adults, patients in intensive care units, and people living with HIV/AIDS, liver cirrhosis, cancer, kidney disease, and autoimmune diseases.

It also played a major role in most of the deaths caused by dysregulated immune response during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the experts said.

“Unless we educate and aware the masses, sepsis will remain an enigma. Recently, the Paediatric Association of India has adopted a slogan called AAA — ‘Avoid Antibiotic Abuse’, as antibiotics are prescribed too much in India. Nearly 54 per cent of newborns in India die of sepsis which is worse than Africa. We need a three-pronged approach — primary prevention, secondary prevention and education and awareness,” said Kishore Kumar, Founder and Chairman, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals.

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The Importance of Identifying Bowel Cancer Early

Bowel cancer can be lethal, which is highly unfortunate because many people who have it exhibit “red flag” symptoms that aren’t picked up on when they should be, according to a study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

In fact, some 16% of emergency bowel cancer patients see their GP at least three times with the relevant symptoms.These so-called “red flag” symptoms were noted to be less common in patients diagnosed at an emergency stage rather than early on in their illness. 

 

The study was conducted by researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine. They specifically focused on events in bowel cancer patients’ lives in the five years leading up to their diagnosis.

 

National Cancer Registry data linked to GP data for 1,606 patients visiting over 200 GP practices was used as the sample for the study. The findings the researchers made were eye-opening – some 35% of all diagnosed colon cancers and 15% of all rectal cancers were diagnosed after the patient presented in an emergency situation. 

 

While it must be said that many of these patients did not exhibit the most obvious bowel cancer symptoms, making it harder for GPs to diagnose them early on in the illness, the study established that 17.5% of colon cancer patients and 23% of rectal cancer patients did in fact exhibit “red flag” symptoms. This means that there was an opportunity for an earlier diagnosis to be made that was missed.

A Study Participant’s Story

A middle-aged man named Paul, who was suffering from bowel cancer, wasn’t diagnosed until he had visited his GP several times over. Noticing blood in his stools was the catalyst for his GP to send him for more in-depth testing. 

 

His GP had told him to simply lose weight in an attempt to beat the constant lethargy he was feeling, but this didn’t really change much. Even the results of his tests didn’t pick up on what was underlying, so he decided to visit a private specialist to get to the bottom of the problem. 

 

The results of the internal exam were not good. Within a few days of seeing the specialist, Paul was diagnosed with bowel cancer that had also spread to his liver and lungs. Within a week of his diagnosis, he was on the operating table for the first of a series of major operations to remove the cancer. 

 

More than two feet of his bowels were removed, together with half of his liver. He also had to undergo chemotherapy. While his energy levels have recovered, Paul says that he’ll never be the same as he was, however he feels blessed to be alive. 

 

His case is indicative of typical patterns found pertaining to patients who are eventually diagnosed with bowel cancer. These patients tend to visit their doctor more frequently in the year running up to their diagnosis. As a suggestion to prevent diagnoses being missed, the researchers proposed employing specially-trained nurses to support GPs and act as a safety net during consultations.  

 

What to Look Out For

Most common colon cancer symptoms in the year before diagnosis: 

abdominal pain 

anemia 

diarrhea 

rectal bleeding 

 

Most common rectal cancer symptoms in the year before diagnosis: 

rectal bleeding 

change in bowel habits 

diarrhea 

abdominal pain 

 

A Word from the Study’s Lead Researcher

Cristina Renzi, the lead researcher from University College London, said the study clearly showed that those who presented in an emergency situation did not fare as well as the patients who were diagnosed by their GP. 

 

She added that multiple visits to the GP prior to their diagnoses represented multiple missed opportunities for earlier identification, and stressed the need to find ways to ensure these patients are diagnosed as soon as possible. 

 

Studies such as this highlight the necessity of giving GPs the support they need to be able to diagnose and refer patients promptly due to the nature of the illness, she concluded.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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