Although meningioma is a benign tumor most of the time, patients who are affected seem to suffer from a weight of significant long -term disease, resulting in particular by a deterioration in quality of life and high levels of anxiety and depression.

What is a meningioma? What is this tumor due to? What are the symptoms? What link with depression? Here are our explanations.

What is a meningioma?

A meningioma is a tumor that develops from the meninges. This is:

• Benign in 90 % of cases: we speak in this case of grade i tumor;
• Atypical or aggressive, tend to recur in 9 % of cases: it is a tumor of grade II;
• Maligne or cancer, in less than 1 % of cases: Grade III tumor.

Even if 76 % of people affected by meningioma are over 50, young adults can also be affected. In 69 % of cases it affects women. This predominance tends to fade after menopause.

Meningioma is located:

• Most often on brain hemispheres;
• at the base of the skull;
• at the cerebellum;
• etc.

The evolution of meningioma is slow. This can grow for months, even years.

What is meningioma due to?

The precise cause of meningioma is often unknown. However, the risk factor clearly established to date remains exposure to ionizing radiation, such as cranial radiotherapy, especially in childhood. But other factors may promote the occurrence and growth of one or more meningiomas such as:

• the presence of certain genes inherited from its ascendants;
• pregnancy, a period marked by hormonal changes in pregnant women;
• hormonal factors;
• Certain hormonal treatments by progestin and by cyproterone acetate. This effect would be due to the presence of specific hormonal receptors on meningioma. These are progesterone receptors, androgens or, in rarer, estrogen cases. Taking this type of treatment in women increases the risk of developing meningioma. Likewise, some hormonal treatments can lead to the development of meningioma in humans.

What are the symptoms of meningioma?

A meningioma can be asymptomatic and be fortuitously discovered during an examination such as a scanner or a brain MRI, made for another reason.

However, neurological symptoms can appear. They depend on the location of meningioma and are caused by the compression of brain structures by the tumor. They are not specific to meningioma but can be the signal. They often settle slowly and gradually. These include:

• diffuse or localized headaches, banal or recent appearance, which worsen despite taking analgesics;
• disorders of vision, sensitivity, speech, sight, behavior that has occurred recently;
• recent memory disorders;
• weakness in arms or legs, even paralysis;
• loss of balance and dizziness;
• hearing loss;
• loss of smell;
• the occurrence of an epilepsy or convulsion crisis.

What is the link between meningioma and depression?

Compared to other intracranial tumors, meningiomas often evolve slowly and generally have a good prognosis. Indeed, the survival rate at 5 years and 15 years respectively reach 85-90 % and 75-80 % respectively. The slowness of their growth, associated with the increasingly widespread use of cranial imaging, means that many patients are fortuitously diagnosed and often without any associated symptoms.

Surgery remains the pillar of the treatment of meningiomas and is often curative if total resection is obtained. However, many asymptomatic meningiomas are not treated and are subject to regular monitoring by series imaging. Despite their favorable prognosis, there is a risk of recurrence after resection, especially for high -grade tumors.

Some studies have looked into the burden of mental health in patients with meningiomas. These show that the prevalence of light to severe anxiety symptoms is:

• 28 to 45 % in patients treated with surgery;
• 42 to 50 % in patients under active surveillance.

They also show that the prevalence of light to severe depression symptoms is:

• 7 to 61 % in patients treated with surgery;
• 6 to 87 % in patients with active surveillance.

In these studies, patients evoke influence:

• resilience;
• uncertainty;
• the effect of time elapsed since the diagnosis or after the operation;
• waiting for follow -up assessments;
• difficulty in adapting to residual symptoms or deficits;
• social support;
• Interactions with medical experts.

Thus, despite their benign nature, meningiomas can be associated with significant psychiatric comorbidity, in particular with symptoms of anxiety and depression that is to identify and take care of effectively.

Study here: