The Concerning Dream That Led to a Diagnosis
- “Avengers” actor Mark Ruffalo, 56, says he was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor the size of a golf ball behind his ear. He successfully underwent surgery to remove it, and after a year of regaining his hearing, he fully recovered. Interestingly, he dreamt of the tumor before getting a CT scan, which confirmed its existence.
- According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), brain tumors account for 85-90% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors. They can either be cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign), and depending on where the tumor forms on the brain, doctors determine its type, potential symptoms, and potential treatment.
- Brain tumors do not always cause symptoms, but they can impact a person’s brain function and overall health, depending on the size, type, and location of the brain.
Brain tumors (malignant and benign) can cause an array of symptoms, which may include difficulty walking, headaches, confusion, personality changes, vision changes, memory loss, and more. - Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive cancerous brain tumor in adults. It is tricky to treat and manage because its cells are heterogeneous, meaning each must be individually targeted to slow tumor growth. Despite this treatment challenge, ongoing research still aims to improve the quality of life for patients.
Actor Mark Ruffalo, 56, famed for his portrayal of “The Hulk” in “Avengers,” revealed a harrowing ordeal his family faced when a golf ball-sized brain tumor behind his ear was discovered shortly before the birth of one of his children.
Even more unsettling, he recounts dreaming about having a tumor before he questioned his doctor, only to discover the disturbing reality of his condition despite barely exhibiting symptoms.
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“The nurse calls the doctor out, and I could hear them talking in the other room, and she just comes in, and she’s a zombie. And she says, ‘You have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball, and we don’t know what it is. We can’t tell until it’s biopsied,” Ruffalo recalls the nurse telling him.
At the same time, his wife was on the verge of giving birth. Ruffalo says she was excited throughout the pregnancy and anxiously awaited childbirth. He says because of her immense excitement, he chose to wait to tell his wife about his tumor until after their baby was born.
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“When I told Sunny about it, first she thought I was joking. And then she just burst into tears and said, ‘I always knew you were gonna die young,” Ruffalo quipped.
While the exact type of tumor Ruffalo had wasn’t revealed. Fortunately, his tumor turned out to be benign (non-cancerous). Still, he had it surgically removed. In the wake of surgery, he said he woke up “completely deaf” in one ear and dealt with facial paralysis on his left side. After about a year, all residual effects of treatment wore off.
Expert Resources for Brain Cancer
Making Sense of a Brain Tumor Diagnosis
According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), brain tumors account for 85-90% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors. They can either be cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign), and depending on where the tumor forms on the brain, doctors determine its type, potential symptoms, and potential treatment.
WATCH: Debunking 5G Claims Causing Brain Cancer.
Signs and Symptoms of Brain Tumors
Brain tumors impact a person’s brain function and overall health, depending on their size, type, and location within the brain. Tumors that grow big enough and disrupt normal central nervous system functioning can press on nearby nerves, blood vessels, or other tissues. The disrupted central nervous system can present in various ways, making walking or maintaining balance difficult.
However, it’s important to know that brain tumors do not always cause symptoms.
Other signs of brain tumors may include:
- Headaches
- Difficulty speaking or thinking
- Weakness
- Behavioral changes
- Vision changes
- Seizures
- Loss of hearing
- Confusion
- Memory loss
- Treatments for Brain Tumors
Treatment options for brain cancer depend on a variety of factors, including the size and type of the tumor as well as the grade of the tumor.
Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are options doctors use to treat brain tumors. Cancer warriors are encouraged to talk to their doctor about their situation and the best treatment options.
The prognosis for brain cancer, or how likely it is to be cured, depends on a few things:
- The type of brain tumor
- How fast the brain tumor is growing
- The tumor’s location
- If there are DNA changes in the cells of the brain tumor
- If the entire tumor can be removed with surgery
- Your overall health
Your doctor will be able to help you understand your specific and unique circumstances and how they relate to your prognosis.
Types of Cancerous and Non-cancerous Brain Tumors
A brain tumor can affect you differently depending on its location and if it is cancerous. Ruffalo’s tumor was non-cancerous or benign. According to the National Cancer Institute, some examples of these types of brain tumors include:
- Chordomas are mostly benign, tend to be slow-growing, and are more often found near the tailbone or where the spine meets the skull.
- Craniopharyngiomas are rare, slow-growing tumors that don’t spread to other parts of the brain or body. They form near the pituitary gland near the base of the brain.
- Gangliocytomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system that tend to form on the temporal lobe (the left or right side of the brain).
- Glomus jugulare are rare and slow-growing tumors.
- Meningiomas are rare brain tumors that usually form on the outer layer of tissue that covers the brain (dura mater).
- Pineocytomas are rare and slow-growing tumors located in the pineal gland near the middle of the brain.
- Pituitary adenomas are slow-growing brain tumors of the anterior pituitary located in the lower part of the brain.
- Schwannomas are rare tumors that grow on the cells that protect nerve cells. They are called Schwann cells.
- Acoustic neuromas (vestibular schwannoma) are slow-growing tumors that develop from the nears that help balance and hearing.
Malignant or Cancerous tumors. These kinds of tumors include:
- Gliomas are the most common form of cancerous and aggressive primary brain tumors.
- Astrocytoma (glioma) forms in astrocytes (star-shaped cells). These tumors are classified into four grades depending on how aggressive or fast they grow and impact brain tissue.
- Ependymomas are tumors classified into three grades depending on how aggressive or fast they grow.
- Oligodendroglioma tumors are classified into grades depending on their growth speed. Grade 2 oligodendroglioma tumors are slow-growing and can invade nearby tissue, but they may not present symptoms for many years before detection. Meanwhile, grade 3 oligodendroglioma tumors grow quickly.
- Medulloblastoma tumors are classified into four different grades depending on their aggressive nature or how quickly they grow.
- Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive brain tumor in adults. We explain this form of brain tumor in more detail below.
Better Understanding Glioblastoma Tumors
Glioblastoma is considered a central nervous system (CNS) tumor. Burrell’s tumor is considered grade 4, which means her brain tumor “grows and spreads very quickly,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
According to the National Cancer Institute, the average survival rate is 15 months with treatment and less than six if left untreated. While there is a five-year survival rate of averaging 6 percent, those individuals will never be cancer-free. They must continue receiving radiation and chemotherapy for the rest of their lives. Again, Dr. Friedman aims to boost the survival rate beyond 20% with his poliovirus and immunotherapy still undergoing research.
Glioblastomas are tricky to treat and manage because their cells are heterogeneous, meaning each must be individually targeted to slow tumor growth. Surgery cannot remove all the cancer because the tumor burrows into the brain, so the tumor starts to grow again immediately after surgery.
Glioblastoma risk factors can include:
- Prior radiation exposure
- Gender: men are more likely to get glioblastoma than women
- Age: people 50 years or older
- Certain genetic syndromes, including neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis, von Hippel-Lindau disease
Symptoms for glioblastoma can vary depending on the area of the brain where the tumor begins and spreads and its growth rate, according to MD Anderson Cancer Center. But common symptoms of glioblastoma can include:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Changes in mental function, mood, or personality
- Changes in speech
- Sensory changes in hearing, smell, and sight
- Loss of balance
- Changes in your pulse and breathing rate
Clinical Trials for Glioblastoma Treatment Show Promise
Researchers have made such progress using CAR T-cell Therapy, a cancer treatment that re-engineers the immune system to target cancer. More specifically, researchers used a CAR T-cell therapy variant called CAR-TEAM. It’s designed to be “directly injected into the patient’s brain” by targeting a protein often found in glioblastomas called EGFR.
Although the clinical trial phase for this treatment is far from complete, it presents an opportunity for further exploration of treating glioblastoma.
The results of the clinical trial showed significant tumor regression among patients.
“These results are exciting, but they are also just the beginning—they tell us that we are on the right track in pursuing a therapy that can potentially change the outlook for this intractable disease. We haven’t cured patients yet, but that is our audacious goal,” Dr. Marcela Maus, director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at the Mass General Cancer Center, said.
As the clinical trial continues, the team of researchers hopes to find ways to prolong the CAR-TEAM cell treatment’s effectiveness, as two of the three patients experienced a relapse after some time.
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