Teen angst... or is it the f irst sign of a deadly tumour?
DEADLY brain tumours in teenagers are going undiagnosed for months because the symptoms are sometimes mistaken for adolescent angst and exam stress. In Britain, 500 under-18s suffer from a brain tumour every year and in a quarter of cases the disease is fatal, killing one child every three days. Survivors are often left with lifelong disabilities.
While children under 12 with brain tumours are diagnosed within seven weeks, diagnosis time for teenagers is ten weeks, according to The Brain Tumour Charity.
This is because symptoms such as headaches, tiredness and mood swings are often blamed on hormone fluctuations or being under pressure at school, the charity says.
In 2011, the charity launched HeadSmart, a campaign to educate parents and medical professionals about brain-tumour symptoms.
As a result, the symptom interval – the length of time between symptoms first appearing and diagnosis – for children under 12 has halved, from 13 to 6½ weeks. But the charity has been struggling to replicate this success in over-12s.
A brain tumour will often cause frequent vomiting, blurred vision or vision loss, seizures and balance problems.
However, early symptoms such as severe migraine-like headaches and mood swings are difficult to differentiate from more benign causes.
David Walker, Professor of Paediatric Oncology and co-director of the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre at Nottingham University, said: ‘Mood swings, tiredness or headaches are not the norm in under-12s – which is why they are red flags that can cause a GP to order a brain scan.
‘But the vast majority of adolescents with these symptoms might not cause their parents much concern. Even if they do see their GP, it’s unlikely they’d be sent for a brain scan in the first instance.
‘It’s important that teenagers and parents are vigilant of changing or worsening symptoms, and go back to their doctor again and again if necessary.’
He added: ‘It’s not GPs being negligent. In fact, the health community as a whole is unaware of diagnosis of brain tumours at any age.’
Hayley Epps, campaign manager for The Brain Tumour Charity, said it was imperative to tackle the problem, and added that there did need to be greater awareness among GPs.
She said: ‘Brain tumours kill more teenagers and adults under 40 in the UK than any other form of cancer. A delay in diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death.
‘Symptoms can easily be mistaken for other problems that typically affect teenagers, and many teens also tend to be reluctant to talk to their parents about health issues. ‘By the time it becomes obvious that something is very wrong, the tumour may be more difficult to treat than it would have been a few weeks earlier.’
Heather Sim, 47, from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, lost her 17-year-old daughter Emma to a brain tumour in November 2015.
Despite several visits to doctors about problems with her sight and searing headaches, the family kept being turned away – her symptoms blamed on exam stress and surfing the internet.
When the tumour was finally diagnosed, despite surgery and treatment, it was too late.
The problems had started when Emma was 15, and she complained about suffering from headaches and not being able to see the board properly at school.
Heather, who lives with husband Graeme, 49, and daughter Ellie, 15, said: ‘We took her to the optician who said she needed glasses.
‘Then she started waking up with headaches and sickness and we took her to the GP three times. We were told they were migraines.’
Eventually, an MRI scan revealed a brain tumour.
Surgeons removed most of it but, after chemotherapy and radiotherapy, another scan showed it had grown into her brain stem and was inoperable.
Emma died at home in her parents’ arms.
Heather said: ‘We know how easy it is for teenagers’ brain-tumour symptoms such as headaches to be mistaken for exam stress.
‘There’s not a day goes by that we don’t miss Emma.’