World Brain Tumor Day is observed on June 8 every year to raise awareness and educate people about brain tumors. In 2000, it was first observed by a Leipzig-based non-profit organization, the German Brain Tumor Association. A brain tumor occurs when the cells inside the brain start growing at an abnormal speed which forms a mass of abnormal cells in the brain. The enclosed space inside the skull is limited, and when these abnormal cells start closing in the space, the symptoms are observed.
There is no description of a brain tumor in the ancient medical texts, but there is recurring mention of skull trepanation (surgically intervened burr hole into the human skull) to relieve the symptoms of a brain tumor. Thinkers like Socrates, Celsus, Galen, and Hippocrates mention instructions in their treatises regarding trepanation to alleviate intracranial pressure while they do not mention brain tumors in their works. In antiquity, brain tumors resulted in death after a long battle with symptoms such as headaches, seizures, and coma.
After the discovery of X-rays in 1895, many neurosurgeons started to localize and diagnose brain tumors. A German neurosurgeon named Fedor Krause used x-rays to localize brain tumors. Later in 1954, for the first time noninvasive method to localize brain tumors was introduced by using a nuclear scanner. It was a few decades later that Sir Godfrey N. Hounsfield created the first C.T. scanner. In 1971, C.T. scanners were installed in London, England, and then in the United States. In 1975, full-body C.T. scanners were introduced.
In 1971, Raymond V. Damadian reported that nuclear magnetic resonance, also called M.R., can distinguish normal from tumoral tissues. In 1973, Paul C. Lauterbur produced the first images of mice using M.R. Imaging, and in a few years, the first human M.R. images were reported. Lauterbur won the Nobel Prize in 2003 for his discovery.
