26-Year-Old Woman Dismissed Headaches As Pregnancy Symptom. It Turned Out To Be a Brain Tumor— Navigating Cancer As a Mom

Speaking to SWNS in a recent interview, according to the Daily Record, Wright admitted she suspected her severe headaches were related to her pregnancy and had something to do with a blood pressure condition known as preeclampsia. However, a trip to the hospital and a CT scan revealed she had a brain mass.

A followup MRI scan revealed she had a 6cm brain tumor, which she learned after having her son Alfie, as she underwent surgery to remove 85 percent of the tumor and a biopsy, that it was a grade three astrocytoma brain tumor, which is rare type of cancer and a low-grade glioma.

Astrocytoma brain tumors develop from astrocytes, which are “star-shaped cells” found in the brain. As per the American Brain Tumor Association, these types of tumors as “slow growing and tend to invade surrounding tissue.” This is a type of glial tumor and makes up “60 percent of the tumors,” according to research published in StatPearls. Additionally, research published in the National Library of Medicine, explains that grade 2 astrocytoma is usually seen in adults and “may progress to glioblastoma.”

Wright first experienced her headaches in March 2024, and later that month, on the 28th, she welcomed her son at a hospital in Edinburgh, England.

She underwent surgery to get the tumor removed on August 19 that year, but 15 percent of it couldn’t be removed due to its location. Then, in September, she began 33 rounds of radiotherapy and 12 rounds of chemotherapy.

She told SWNS, “After the operation, the tumor was sent for a biopsy. The results came back and said I had a grade three astrocytoma. I was devastated.

“I was told I could have three years to 10 years to live. It was hard to get my head around.”

As for how she felt after giving birth, she explained, “It was such a weird time because I felt as if I had all the exciting moments of the end of the pregnancy taken away from me.

“I felt like there was a negative energy around the pregnancy, nobody was able to focus on the fact I was having my first child. Everyone was just so upset.”

Despite her overwhelming emotions and side effects she’s endured from her treatments she has coped with the disease by working on a “memory boxy” to put voice recordings and letters inside for her beloved son.

She concluded, “If I think too deeply into leaving Alfie behind it makes me really upset so when I am with him I try to block it out of my mind. I have a memory box where I can write letters, there is a voice recorder in there too.

“I have started putting things into it but that in itself is a hard thing to do.”

Making Sense of a Brain Tumor Diagnosis

According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), brain tumors account for 85-90% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors. They can either be cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign), and depending on where the tumor forms on the brain, doctors determine its type, potential symptoms, and potential treatment.

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Signs and Symptoms of Brain Tumors

Brain tumors impact a person’s brain function and overall health, depending on their size, type, and location within the brain. Tumors that grow big enough and disrupt normal central nervous system functioning can press on nearby nerves, blood vessels, or other tissues. The disrupted central nervous system can present in various ways, making walking or maintaining balance difficult.

However, it’s important to know that brain tumors do not always cause symptoms.

Other signs of brain tumors may include:

• Headaches
• Difficulty speaking or thinking
• Weakness
• Behavioral changes
• Vision changes
• Seizures
• Loss of hearing
• Confusion
• Memory loss

Treatments for Brain Tumors

Treatment options for brain cancer depend on a variety of factors, including the size and type of the tumor as well as the grade of the tumor.

Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are options doctors use to treat brain tumors. Cancer warriors are encouraged to talk to their doctor about their situation and the best treatment options.

What is a Glioma: Understanding Types & Standard of Care

The prognosis for brain cancer, or how likely it is to be cured, depends on a few things, including:

• The type of brain tumor
• How fast the brain tumor is growing
• The tumor’s location
• If there are DNA changes in the cells of the brain tumor
• If the entire tumor can be removed with surgery
• Your overall health

Your doctor will be able to help you understand your specific and unique circumstances and how they relate to your prognosis.

Types of Cancerous and Non-Cancerous Brain Tumors

A brain tumor can affect you differently depending on its location and if it is cancerous. Some brain tumors are non-cancerous (or benign). According to the National Cancer Institute, some examples of these types of brain tumors include:

• Chordomas are primarily benign and slow-growing and are often found near the tailbone or where the spine meets the skull.
• Craniopharyngiomas are rare, slow-growing tumors that don’t spread to other parts of the brain or body. They form near the pituitary gland near the base of the brain.
• Gangliocytomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system that tend to form on the temporal lobe (the left or right side of the brain).
• Glomus jugulare are rare and slow-growing tumors.
• Meningiomas are rare brain tumors that usually form on the outer layer of tissue that covers the brain (dura mater).
• Pineocytomas are rare and slow-growing tumors located in the pineal gland near the middle of the brain.
• Pituitary adenomas are slow-growing brain tumors of the anterior pituitary located in the lower part of the brain.
• Schwannomas are rare tumors that grow on the cells that protect nerve cells. They are called Schwann cells.
• Acoustic neuromas (vestibular schwannoma) are slow-growing tumors that develop from the nerves that help balance and hearing.

Other brain tumors are malignant or cancerous. These kinds of tumors include:

• Gliomas are the most common form of cancerous and aggressive primary brain tumors.
• Astrocytoma (glioma) forms in astrocytes (star-shaped cells). Depending on how aggressive or fast they grow and impact brain tissue, these tumors are classified into four grades.
• Ependymomas are tumors classified into three grades depending on how aggressive or fast they grow.
• Oligodendroglioma tumors are classified into grades depending on their growth speed. Grade 2 oligodendroglioma tumors are slow-growing and can invade nearby tissue, but they may not present symptoms for many years before detection. Meanwhile, grade 3 oligodendroglioma tumors proliferate.
• Medulloblastoma tumors are classified into four different grades depending on their aggressive nature or how quickly they grow.
• Glioblastoma, which is considered a central nervous system (CNS) tumor, is the most common and aggressive brain tumor in adults.

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Understanding Gliomas and How They Are Graded

A glioma is a type of tumor that originates in the central nervous system, specifically in the brain or spinal cord. They originate in glial cells. Glial cells are supportive cells in the brain which serve to protect and maintain the neurons. They perform these tasks by maintaining the right chemical environment for electrical signaling, creating protective coverings for neurons, and removing debris and acting as scavengers. Neurons are the key cells in the brain and spinal cord which are responsible for transmitting messages in the brain. While the signals and messages that allow you to think, move, and speak are created by neurons, the glial cells are critical in maintaining brain function.

So essentially, a glioma is a tumor that comes from the brain’s own support cells.

“Glioma is a broad term that refers to a whole range of different types of primary brain tumors,” Dr. Alexandra Miller, Director of the Neuro-Oncologist Division at NYU Langone Health, tells SurvivorNet. “So, they’re tumors that originate in the brain and very rarely spread outside the brain to other parts of the body.”

Those glial cells, like many other cells in the body, have the potential to grow abnormally and form a mass, and that is when a glioma is formed. Gliomas, as they arise from the brain or spinal cord, are considered a primary brain tumor. They do not spread from elsewhere in the body. Relative to other cancers such as breast, prostate, and lung, primary brain tumors are relatively uncommon with 80,000 diagnosed per year in the United States. Of the primary brain tumors diagnosed each year, gliomas comprise approximately 25%.

The Grading System of Gliomas

Gliomas are graded on a scale of I to IV, with higher grades indicating a more aggressive tumor. This grading is based on several factors including the type of glioma, the genetics of the cancer, as well as the appearance of the tumor cells under a microscope. The more abnormal the cells look, the higher the grade, and the faster the tumor is likely to grow and spread. Here’s a quick overview:

• Grade I-II gliomas – These are considered low-grade and tend to grow slowly. “The grade one is a very indolent, benign tumor that basically can be cured with surgery alone,” Dr. Henry Friedman, Deputy Director of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, tells SurvivorNet.
• Grade III gliomas – These are considered high-grade and tend to grow more rapidly. Grade III gliomas are typically classified as malignant and typically require more aggressive treatment which can include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
• Grade IV gliomas – These are the most aggressive gliomas which are locally aggressive and require treatment intensification. Glioblastomas are the most common grade IV glioma, “which is by far the most well known and most feared tumor in the lay population and quite frankly, the medical population as well,” Dr. Friedman explains.

Although Grade IV gliomas are the most aggressive glioma and may require several types of treatment including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, there can be challenges in treating low grade gliomas as well. When making decisions on treatment, several factors are taken into consideration including location of the tumor, ease of surgery and ability to resect, neurologic deficits, patient age, tumor size, and overall health.

Avoiding Provider Bias – Is Your Doctor Understanding You?

While your doctor has undergone years of training and practice, they are still human, and may come with their own set of biases that can impact how they treat patients.

To combat these biases and really get the most out of your interactions with your doctor, you should provide her or him with plenty of information about your life and ask plenty of questions when things aren’t clear. To better understand how you should approach conversations with your doctor, we previously spoke with Dr. Dana Chase, gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology.

According to Dr. Chase, physicians, like many of us, can be a bit biased when seeing patients. She made it clear that these biases are rarely sinister, but rather unconscious and more subtle.

She explained, “We have certain beliefs that we don’t know about. We might look, for example, at an older woman, and just by the way she looks we might make certain assumptions, and we might not even know that we’re making these assumptions.”

Let’s Talk About Provider Bias

Clearing up misconceptions is important, but so is understanding what your doctor is telling you, Dr. Chase noted. Overall, she advises women to speak up and ask questions when they don’t understand something.

“It’s never a bad thing to ask for something to be repeated, or to ask the doctors to explain it in different terms.”

So next time you go to your physician, speak up if you need clarity, so your doctor can understand you and you can understand them.

Additionally, a component of advocating for yourself in healthcare includes going back to the doctor multiple times and even getting multiple opinions.

Dr. Steven Rosenberg is the National Cancer Institute Chief of Surgery, and he previously told SurvivorNet about the advantages of getting input from multiple doctors.

Cancer research legend urges patients to get multiple opinions.

“If I had any advice for you following a cancer diagnosis, it would be, first, to seek out multiple opinions as to the best care. Because finding a doctor who is up to the latest of information is important,” Dr. Rosenberg said.

Coping With a Diagnosis

Coping with a diagnosis involves a range of emotions from anger to sadness and everything in between. For anyone new to battling a disease, Sarah Stapleton, a licensed clinical social worker, encourages cancer warriors and their families to be “patient with your emotions.”

It’s also important that you understand how you communicate with your providers, but also with your loved ones,” Stapleton said. “We can’t always assume that people know what we need at a given time, and there are going to be times when you don’t want to speak about your diagnosis and you don’t want to speak about cancer.

Psychiatrist Dr. Lori Plutchik previously explained to SurvivorNet some tips for cancer warriors and their caregivers for managing emotions after a diagnosis. She emphasized getting extra support from loved ones.

“Some people don’t need to go outside of their family and friend circle. They feel like they have enough support there,” Dr. Plutchik said. “But for people who feel like they need a little bit more, it is important to reach out to a mental health professional.”

“Patients who have just been diagnosed with cancer sometimes wonder how they are going to handle the diagnosis of the cancer in social situations,” Dr. Plutchik added. “How much information they should share and with whom they should share the information, everybody is different.”

Ultimately it comes down to what feels right. Loved ones supporting a cancer warrior are encouraged to respect the wishes of the cancer patient when it comes to disclosing their diagnosis.

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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