Jerome Harrison UPDATE: Brain tumor was an ependymoma

These were the details I was looking for!

An update by ESPN shed more light on the nature of Jerome Harrison's brain tumor. To summarize (and elaborate):

• Harrison had surgery and the neurosurgeons believed they were able to remove all of the tumor. The tumor was located in the fourth ventricle of the brain (see diagram to the right for the anatomic location). It's actually located lower down in the brain just in front of the cerebellum and is one of the spaces (i.e. ventricles) that contain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The function of the CSF is to act as a buffer between the brain and the skull. The brain literally "floats" in the fluid.
• The tumor was identified, presumably via histology, as an ependymoma. I'll talk about ependymomas below.
• Apparently Harrison also had an arteriovenous malformation which may have contributed to the tumor. I posted about arteriovenous malformations earlier when Eagles DT Mike Patterson had a seizure in training camp presumably as a result of one. I didn't actually know AVMs were a risk factor for tumors. You learn something new every day I guess.

Now, about ependymomas...

Ependymomas are a rather rare form of neurological tumor. They can actually occur almost anywhere in the spinal cord, not just the brain, although most commonly in the fourth ventricle like in this case. They only account for about 10% of all central nervous system tumors and 25% of all spinal cord tumors. These tumors arise from tissue called ependyma which are cells that normall produce CSF. 

They are definitively diagnosed through histology and with molecular genetics although when they are seen on MRI or CT there are certain visual characteristics that may make an ependymoma vs. other type of brain tumors more likely. 

Treatment, as stated before, involves surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible. With ependymomas, some patients receive radiation therapy after surgery.

Prognosis: A number of factors affect chances of recurrent disease. These factors include... 

1. how much of the original mass was resected in surgery (the more removed, the better obviously), 

2. Grade (cell appearance) - patients with high histological grade tumors (i.e. cells that do not resemble the original tissue) tend to have higher tumor recurrence rates

One study cited disease-free rates at 5 and 10 years at 84.8 and 76.5%, respectively.

Jerome Harrison - brain tumor

Click here to see my UPDATE (10/23) on this story

As you may have heard, Lions running back Jerome Harrison was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

The way the malignancy was discovered is probably the most fascinating detail of the story. Harrison was supposed to be traded to the Eagles for RB Ronnie Brown this week. While undergoing a physical, an MRI of his head was performed, which is how they found the tumor. What puzzled me the most is that when performing a "routine physical" on someone, you don't usually just randomly MRI their brain. It turns out that Harrison had been suffering recurrent headaches and that's why he got the MRI.

The term "brain tumor" is vague to say the least. First off, a cancer in the brain can either be a primary malignancy or metastasis. A primary malignancy means that this was the site where the cancer originated. Metastasis refers to the cancer showing up in the brain as a result of spreading from another site. The origins of brain metastases are most commonly from melanoma (WEAR SUNSCREEN), lung cancer, genitourinary cancers (e.g. testes, kidney), osteosarcoma (bone) and breast cancer.

Now even presuming that this is a primary brain malignancy, it's still a super vague term. There is a multitude of tumors that can grow in the "brain" region. Sorry, multitude is the wrong word. How about THE LONGEST SHOPPING LIST EVER.

How is it found? Sometimes masses in the brain can cause generalized symptoms as a result of its size and growth alone. Think about it - your brain doesn't like getting pushed on and moved around. General symptoms include headache, seizures, nausea/vomiting, altered level of consciousness and decrease in cognitive function. And these symptoms tend to occur slowly or sporadically over time; they're unlikely just to pop up all of a sudden. Sometimes, the tumor can cause some specific symptoms based on its location - seizures (again), weakness or sensory loss into certain areas of the body, difficulty speaking, or vision problems. Now I know about half of you that are reading this now think you have a brain tumor. Stop it. Far more common things cause all of the above symptoms.

Treatment: neurosurgery. I won't even dare go further into explaining how, when or why some get treated or some don't because ... it's neurosurgery. I do know that size, rate of growth and location all play a role in whether all, some or none of it is operable but that's really all I know.