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Serious Injury Lawyer Explores
Head Injuries and the Increased
Risk of Brain Cancer
by Lauren Haas, Senior Associate Solicitor, Irwin Mitchell
As I deal with many claims relating to head injuries, new developments and studies relating to
potential risk factors arising from head injuries interest me greatly.
Such risk factors, if and when accepted in mainstream
medicine, may well result in higher or different compensation awards, and of course greater awareness
amongst clients and their treating consultants of the
risks related to head injuries can only lead to better
outcome in terms of timely diagnoses.
The study findings showed that following (what seem
to be quite common) gene mutations, along with brain
inflammation induced by acute injury, during the natural process of ageing astrocytes were more likely to
initiate a cancer. In fact, the reversion to neural stemcell like behaviour increased in the astrocytes when
they injected mice with a solution known to cause
inflammation.
As a serious injury lawyer, I was therefore fascinated to
hear of a study in Current Biology relating to the
heightened risk of brain cancer for sufferers of head
injuries. Study held into connection between head injuries and brain tumours
The researchers also cooperated with Dr Alvina Lai
at the UCL Institute of Health Informatics and consulted electronic medical records of over 20,000 people diagnosed with head injuries. They weighed up
the rate of brain cancer with a control group, which
they matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status
and found that patients who experienced a head injury were nearly four times more likely to develop a
brain cancer later in life. Risk of developing brain
cancer before and after injury
Last year, researchers from the UCL Cancer Institute
reported that they had studied the connection
between head injuries and the development of a relatively rare but often aggressive type of cancer called
a glioma which manifests as a brain tumour.
Previous studies had hinted at a possible connection
between the two, but apparently they were relatively
inconclusive. However, UCL researchers set out to
identify a possible mechanism to explain the link between the two. Interestingly, they found that genetic
mutations acting in concert with brain tissue inflammation can change the behaviour of cells and make
them more likely to become cancerous. The study was
on mice, so there will need to be further investigation
whether this correlates to humans. Research suggests
brain trauma may contribute to heightened risk of
cancer
Keeping that in perspective, the risk of developing a
brain cancer is estimated at less than 1% over a lifetime - so very low overall. Even after an injury, therefore, the risk remains relatively modest albeit still
quantifiable. It is a development I will continue following, in the hope that future studies gain more insight into and a larger evidence base of the connection
between head injury and/or trauma and brain
cancers.
Find out more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in
supporting people impacted by serious injury at our
dedicated section on the website.
www.irwinmitchell.com/personal/personal-injury-compensation/serious-injury
One of the lead researchers, Professor Simona
Parrinello (UCL Cancer Institute), Head of the
Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit and co-lead of
the Cancer Research UK Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence suggests that brain trauma may contribute to
an increased risk of such brain cancer in later life by
comparing younger to older mice.
Essentially, neural stem cells often seem to be where
brain cancers such as gliomas originate, whereas more
mature brain cells such as astrocytes were felt to be
more resistant. What the research showed was that in
some circumstances astrocytes could revert to similar
behaviour as neural stem cells. Professor Parrinello
states the team therefore set out to discover whether
she could trigger astrocytes to form brain tumours following brain trauma.
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
Author
Lauren Haas
Senior Associate Solicitor
Serious Injury Team,
Southampton
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