What are the symptoms of a brain tumor?
How long does it take before the first signs appear?
Sometimes a longer period of time passes before a brain tumor causes symptoms. Often, a brain tumor classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as first- or second-degree does not trigger symptoms for months. In WHO grade 3 or 4, on the other hand, the first signs of a brain tumor develop after only a few weeks to days.
When a brain tumor causes symptoms, it is for a variety of reasons:
The tumor – whether benign or malignant – usually takes up a lot of space. Doctors refer to these tumors as space-occupying. As a result, the tumor displaces important structures in the brain and impairs their function. It is also possible that it grows into the surrounding brain tissue (instead of displacing it) and destroys it – depending on the area affected, this results in corresponding symptoms.
Malignant brain tumors in particular destroy parts of the nerve or brain tissue that the tumor cells have affected. Thus, even in the case of smaller tumors that require little or no space, corresponding neurological deficits and symptoms occur.
What are typical signs of a brain tumor?
Most of the signs (such as headaches, dizziness, etc.) are very non-specific and also occur with many other clinical pictures. However, if they become more severe over time and occur in combination, this is a possible indication of a brain tumor.
Headache
New-onset headaches that become increasingly severe over a few days or weeks and increase when lying down are a suspicious and typical sign that usually occurs first with brain tumors. Headaches due to a brain tumor are manifested by occurring at night and in the early morning hours. They often improve spontaneously during the day.
Nausea and vomiting
Many people develop symptoms such as nausea and vomiting when they have a brain tumor. These complaints are also usually the result of increased intracranial pressure. Often, those affected feel nauseous in the morning, even though they have not eaten anything. However, there are other causes of morning sickness, such as a common gastrointestinal infection, pregnancy or alcohol intoxication.
Vision problems
Seeing means perceiving certain images with the eye. To do this, the retina in the eye captures information and sends it along the visual pathway to the visual center in the back of the head. At practically any point along this path, it is possible for a brain tumor to trigger symptoms in the sense of visual disturbances. In most cases, a certain area in the visual field fails – affected persons simply perceive it as a black spot. Doctors call this visual field loss.
Visual disturbances are sometimes also manifested by the fact that affected persons see images twice.
Visual disturbances occur particularly often in the case of a pituitary adenoma. This is a benign brain tumor growing in the pituitary gland. One sign of this type of tumor is that vision is limited, as with blinkers on the outside.
Other neurological deficits
In addition to vision problems, other neurological deficits also indicate a brain tumor. Possible symptoms in the sense of neurological deficits are, for example, signs of paralysis, feelings of numbness (for example, in individual limbs) or speech disorders. Also typical are twitching, for example of the eyelids, and sudden tingling. Furthermore, swallowing disorders or altered taste perception are possible tumor-related symptoms. Affected persons often suffer from dizziness and hearing loss or ear whistling (tinnitus).
Seizure
Hormonal disorders
Brain tumor symptoms also occur in the form of a wide variety of hormonal disorders. This is the case, for example, with a pituitary adenoma: the pituitary gland is an important gland in the brain that produces hormones that regulate the function of other endocrine glands in the body. A tumor of the pituitary gland interferes here. Possible consequences are symptoms that affect, for example, the sleep-wake rhythm, body growth or sexuality.
However, such hormonal disturbances are non-specific symptoms, as they also occur in other diseases.
Impairment of memory
A malignant process in the head sometimes causes cognitive symptoms. Brain tumor sufferers, for example, have impaired attention and are less able to remember certain things. However, impaired concentration and forgetfulness have many possible causes, such as increasing age, and do not necessarily mean that sufferers have a brain tumor.
It is possible that a brain tumor affects mental health. For example, depression, listlessness (apathy), and anxiety are sometimes due to the disease.
Personality changes
Personality disorders are also among the symptoms that may be due to a brain tumor. In most cases, the affected person does not even notice this, but the people around them do. Sufferers are, for example, more easily irritable or less concentrated and more easily distracted.
Sometimes existing personality traits become more pronounced or flatten out. These symptoms often occur insidiously and usually cause sufferers to see a doctor only at a late stage.
Special features of children with brain tumors
However, other diseases can also be the cause of an enlarged head. Birth defects or brain hemorrhages are also possible triggers.
Talk to your doctor if you notice one or more of the symptoms mentioned.
Some symptoms indicate the location of the tumor
The location of the tumor in the brain can often be identified by where symptoms appear on the body. If a brain tumor causes symptoms preferentially on the left side of the body, it is probably located in the right side of the brain. In contrast, symptoms on the right side usually indicate a tumor in the left side of the brain. In the case of signs that can be assigned to a specific location (= a focus) in the brain, physicians speak of focal neurological focus symptoms. For example, if the affected person exhibits a speech disorder (aphasia), this indicates damage to the speech center.
