• Question: can brain tumors grow or increase in size?

    Asked by sophieb to Amar, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 19 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Yes, all tumours start as a single cancerous cell which divides uncontroallably. This cell creates lots of copies of itself, which eventually forms into a mass called a tumour. This tumour will continue to grow because the cells don’t know how to switch off cell division.

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      any tumour can increase in size. some tumours are more aggressive than others and grow more rapidly. biggest tumour i ever saw was a skin cancer (which are usually caught early ) but this one was the size of a dinner plate!

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Like all tumours brain tumours can grow and get bigger as the cells carry on divinding. Some types of brain tumour grow in a spider shape with the arms getting longer and growing outwards rather than growing as an expanding lump of cells. These are can be very difficult to treat as the arms can grow through the normal healthy cells so it can not be removed using surgery.

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