Jill Nachtigal
Composition I
Professor Jurrens
April 20, 2017
Fighting Battles Sometimes you have to fight a battle you don’t want to fight. This happened to my uncle, who had to fight the battle of ependymoma, a type of brain cancer. Many people haven’t heard of this type of brain cancer. Before my uncle was diagnosed with it, I didn’t either. I never thought that my uncle would ever get brain cancer, but it happened. I learned a lot about ependymoma and I have researched. The effects of ependymoma include: effects on your brain and body, effects of treatment, and effects of different types of ependymoma. Ependymoma is a rare type of brain or spinal cord tumors (“Ependymoma” 5). Ependymomas are found …show more content…
Some doctors have found elements that could increase your chance of a brain tumor. A person’s age, subjection to radiation, and family history. A person’s age is common because once you get older things don’t work as well as they used to. Brain tumors are common in adults more than children, but it is common for all ages. Subjection to radiation is basic as it sounds. If a person has been revealed to any type of radiation this can increase your chance of a brain tumor. Power lines, phones, and microwaves have not proven to increase your risk of brain tumors. If you have a small portion of this it still increases your chance of getting a brain tumor (Mayo Clinic Staff 3). The cause of Ependymoma just like every other cancer isn’t quite clear (“Ependymoma” 5).Transition into first point
The effects on the brain and body. There are many different symptoms that lead to the diagnosis of ependymoma. If you get headaches often, the frequency may change, headaches become very serious, vomiting and nausea come very quickly out of nowhere, your vision changes very fast, lose sensation in your leg and arms, you can’t balance very well, speech isn’t well, confusion or forgetfulness, behavior problems or mood swings, seizures, and some hearing loss problems (Mayo Clinic 1). Side effects occur more in children than adults. Transition into second …show more content…
Radiation is recommended for adults and older children who have ependymoma is the surgeon can identify where the tumor is. If the tumor has spread radiation will spread not only in the brain but in the spine as well. Patients will get a boost of radiation to the area of where the tumor originally began growing. Radiation takes up a lot of time in a patient’s day, weeks, or even months. There are many different processes of taking radiation. External beam is given to the patient five days a week for six weeks. Conformal beam is just another type of external beam radiation that is outlining the radiation beams to the shape of the tumor. Stereotactic radiosurgery is a higher dosage type of radiation that is typically given to patients whose tumors grow back after conformal radiation. Chemotherapy is also an option for patients after their surgery. Chemotherapy is a drug that was created to kill tumor cells. Sometimes this doesn’t work as well as radiation. It is often heard that patient’s tumors will respond to treatment but then it will all of a sudden stop. The tumor may even start growing back. Cisplatin and carboplatin are often the drugs that are the most commonly used to shrink an ependymoma tumor. A surgeon may ask the patient if they would like to be a part of experimental chemotherapy if their tumor regrew back after radiation. If a person is diagnosed with