CAUSES OF HEADACHES IN CHILDREN: TUMOURS

Sadly, brain tumours are more common in younger children, certainly during the first five or so years of life. There are good physiological reasons for this – tumours are essentially disorders of cell division, where the cell doesn’t know how to stop dividing. During the development of the baby in the womb, and then in the first few years of life, a great deal of cell division occurs. If cell division goes wrong it may manifest itself as a tumour. In addition, the immune system (which has a large part to play in detecting and removing malignant cells) is immature and perhaps doesn’t recognise altered, cancerous cells for what they are.

After the early part of childhood, tumours generally reduce in frequency and the incidence of cancer only rises again in later life. This too is understandable because in later life the immune mechanisms of the body start to break down and cancer cells may no longer be as easily recognised and dealt with.

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