A tumor is an abnormal growth, whether noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). In many parts of the body, a noncancerous tumor causes few or no problems. However, if any growth or mass in the brain (brain tumor) or spinal cord (spinal tumor) is getting larger, it can cause considerable damage because the structures that contain the brain (the skull) and spinal cord (the spine) cannot expand to make room for any increase in their contents.
Tumors, whether cancerous or not, can develop from nerve tissue in the brain or spinal cord. Cancerous tumors can spread (metastasize) to the brain or spinal cord from elsewhere in the body.
Some cancers elsewhere in the body cause symptoms of nervous system dysfunction even though there is no evidence that nerve tissue has been invaded. These disorders are called paraneoplastic syndromes. The most common paraneoplastic syndromes involve dysfunction of the peripheral nerves (polyneuropathy) and result in muscle weakness, numbness, and tingling. But more severe paraneoplastic syndromes can cause dementia, mood swings, psychosis (which may involve delusions, hallucinations, and bizarre behavior), seizures, loss of coordination, dizziness, double vision, and abnormal eye movements. These syndromes may be fatal even when the tumor is stable. In such cases, treatment includes removing antibodies that may cause the paraneoplastic syndrome from the blood (plasmapheresis). However, the most effective treatment is removal of the tumor.
Tumors of the nervous system may be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, medications such as chemotherapy, or, most often, a combination. Radiation therapy sometimes damages the nervous system, despite the best efforts to prevent this effect. Chemotherapy can affect brain function, so doctors choose chemotherapy drugs carefully to avoid causing undue harm.
