Webinar
Brain Cancer and Brain Tumours
Ask Dr Nicolas Kon about:
- How and why brain cancer and brain tumours develop
- Brain cancer and tumour: signs and symptoms
- Treatment for brain cancer and the costs
- Treatment for brain tumours and the costs
- Damage of the brain by cancer and tumours
Dr Nicolas Kon is a neurosurgeon at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital with knowledge in:
- Neuro-oncology (brain tumours, awake surgery)
- Minimally invasive brain surgery (deep subcortical tumours, brain haemorrhage)
- Functional neurosurgery (trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, spasticity, spinal cord stimulation)
- Deep brain stimulation (Parkinson disease, tremors, dystonias and other movement disorders)
After completing medical school, Dr Kon continued his medical training in neurosurgery and neurocritical care at various institutes in the UK which include the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (London), Charing Cross Hospital (London), Addenbrooke’s Hospital (Cambridge) as well as the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) in Singapore.
He obtained his PhD at Imperial College London and subsequently completed his fellowship at Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto in Canada.
Before practising at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Dr Kon was a consultant neurosurgeon at both Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) campuses under the Department of Neurosurgery, National Neuroscience Institute.
Currently, he is an Adj Associate Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS. He is actively involved in several clinical and translational research and multi-centre international trials. In addition, he holds several patents for his discoveries. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the Centralised Institutional Review Board. Dr Kon is the first neurosurgeon to use the Brainpath minimally invasive neurosurgical technique in Asia.
He has a longstanding commitment to neurosurgery and has received a long service award from the National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore for his contribution. In addition, Dr Kon also has a strong passion towards patient care and has been awarded several Service with A Heart awards by the SGH.
Questions 3
How do I know if the pain in my head is associated with a brain tumour or a spine-injury?
The majority of headaches are not due to a brain tumour and more often caused by a primary headache disorder such as tension or migraine headaches. However in some cases, headache can also be a sign of brain tumour especially when there are red flags. The red flags are a new headache, one that wakes a person up at night, or worse in the morning. Similarly a persistent constant headache that last for more than a couple of weeks without improvement would be a reason to seek medical attention.
What are stem cells and what is stem cell therapy? How useful is it in treating brain tumours?
Stem cells are a special type of cells that have the capacity to self-renew indefinitely and can give rise to multiple cell lineages. They are present throughout life and vary in their potential for further specialization. Some can give rise to all tissue types (pluripotent) while others are restricted to the cell types within one organ. The potential for these advanced cell therapies to completely change the treatment of diseases is immense. However, to date, the overall number of proven stem cell therapies remain small. They also require rigorous scientific and clinical evaluations.
What are the risk factors of developing a brain tumour?
There are some known risk factors that may predispose a person to an increased risk of developing a brain tumour. However, the contribution of these risk factors to the overall risk can be quite small. Risk factors are grouped into those that are modifiable and those that are not.
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