brain tumors

I guess I've been a little out of things, but I just read that Senator Kennedy's seizure was caused by a malignant glioma, which is a cancerous brain tumor. Gliomas arise from the supportive tissue of the brain, and include different types of gliomas, like astrocytoma, glioblastoma, oligodendroglioma, and oligoastrocytoma. The different names come from the specific cells that the tumor arises from. I shouldn't even really use the word "malignant", because in oncology, a lot of times, for brain tumors, the words usually used are slow-growing and fast-growing, instead of "benign" or "malignant". For instance, a meningioma is considered a "benign" tumor, in the sense that it is slow-growing and not as aggressive as something like glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), but it can still be life-threatening. The grade of the tumor is also very important. 

Anyway, my heart sank when I heard this, and though I don't think it's been mentioned what kind of glioma he has, I am hoping that it is not a GBM. When I was at Penn, I had patients who had GBMs, and I had to do psychotherapy and neurological testing with them.....and at times, it was heartbreaking. GBMs are the most aggressive of the brain tumors, and only 1 patient out of every 4 survives for 2 years (cedars-sinai.edu). Sometimes the tumor can be resected, but it grows back, or is resistant to chemo.....it's really tricky and frustrating. Seeing this up close and personal is really hard. And I was just one of their providers - I can't imagine being a family member. My grandmother has a meningioma, a slow-growing tumor, so it is definitely not the same as someone whose loved one has something like a GBM or astrocytoma or anything else. 

I imagine that I will have many moments like this, especially in the beginning, at MSKCC. I just have to work on putting things in perspective, and hold onto hope - because without hope, you can't do anything in this field.