What Causes Brain Tumors?

I understand that sometimes the best solution to a health problem is to avoid getting it in the first place. For example, it seems like if you eat right and exercise, you reduce your chances of getting a heart attack or diabetes or similarly nasty diseases.

So, I visited several brain tumor sites and searched for the answers to this question: “What causes brain tumors?”

The ABTA website writes about this as “Risk Factors” - http://www.abta.org/brain-tumor-information/risk-factors/  At the top of the list of ABTA cited risk factors is “exposure to ionizing radiation.”

Since I had no idea what “ionizing radiation” is, I googled it and got this definition from the World Health Organization: “Energy emitted from a source is generally referred to as radiation. Examples include heat or light from the sun, microwaves from an oven, X rays from an X-ray tube, and gamma rays from radioactive elements.” See http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/about/what_is_ir/en/

This, of course, what got me all hot and bothered about having dental x-rays and you can read my blog posting/rant about that possible correlation with meningioma here -http://johnstumor.blogspot.com/2012/04/dental-x-rays-possible-cause-of.html - because if you’ve had as many bitewing x-rays as I’ve had, your brain is probably hot and bothered, too.

Next, I tried the National Brain Tumor Society’s website: http://www.braintumor.org/  And while I really like the NBTS, I didn’t see anything about how to avoid getting a brain tumor or reducing the risk.

So then I zipped over to the “Cancer Treatment Centers of America” website - http://www.cancercenter.com/ - and learned that “The cause of brain cancer is still largely unknown. Although there are some genetic conditions and environmental factors which may contribute to the development of brain cancer, the risk factors are much less defined for brain cancer than for other cancers in the body.”

This, to me, seems awfully awful. We have lots of brain tumors a year as more that 688,000+ people are grappling with brain tumors in the U.S., let alone all the victims in the rest of the world. http://www.braintumor.org/brain-tumor-information/brain-tumor-information/facts-about-brain-tumors-in-the-us.html

Golly, with that many cases to analyze, interrogate or otherwise manipulate, I thought we’d have a better answer to this seemingly fundamental question.

If you know the answer, or have some clues, please email me. Or, better yet, please tell a high-powered researcher who will actually make use of the information.

John

PS – This all reminds me of Clifton Leaf’s seminal book entitled “The Truth in Small Doses: Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer – and How to Win It.” You can buy it for $12.00 (U.S.) on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Small-Doses-Losing-Cancer-/dp/1476739994/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417465491&sr=8-1&keywords=clifton+leaf+the+truth+in+small+doses

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GBM Research Project: Caregivers/Patients Requested

I got this email today from Rachel Geltman of the Video Chat Network. She wants to interview GBM victims/caregivers. I don’t know Rachel or her company, but I want to help out victims and caregivers. As such, I’m posting this. Since I suspect many of you could use a bit of extra cash, here’s some quotes from her request:

“Hello John,

By way of introduction, my name is Rachel Geltman and my company is Video Chat Network (videochatnetwork.net).  We are an online marketing research company using the latest in video chat technology to conduct virtual market research interviews.  We have been engaged by many health care agencies and pharmaceutical clients to conduct research on their behalf for a wide range of medical conditions with health care professionals, caregivers and patients.

We are currently engaged in a project among Caregivers of patients and patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme (Brain Cancer).  We would like to speak with 4-5  anywhere in the US.”

Now here’s the part that involves some $. 

“We will also compensate the Caregivers/Patients $125 to participate in a 45 minute interview via webcam.  We could conduct these interviews with just one of them by themselves or both of them together.  All they will need to have is a working webcam/microphone and a strong internet connection to participate.  Ideally we would like to start these interviews this coming week (week of 9/15) but can also conduct them the

following week as well (week of 9/22) and will schedule them at their convenience. 

We have a lot of experience conducting health care/pharmaceutical research (http://videochatnetwork.net/pharmaceutical.php) and will take good care of the participants throughout the process. 

Please shoot me back an email, or call me at 917-207-7740, if you are interested in helping us out.

Best regards,

Rachel Geltman”

I think this is first come, first interviewed.

John

PS – She wants to compensate me if any of you sign up, but I told her to donate whatever $ she would give me to the American Brain Tumor Association – www.abta.org. If you have an extra nickel or two, consider doing the same.

PPS - I'm also a big fan of Meningioma Mommas - http://www.meningiomamommas.org/ and It's Just Benign - http://www.itsjustbenign.org/ 

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