Signs of brain tumors can be vague, especially when the tumor is small, has not caused a noticeable change in cognitive function or is in an area of the brain that controls relatively unimportant functions.
In many cases, a person with a brain tumor will not experience any signs or symptoms until the tumor becomes large enough to put pressure on and alter the function of surrounding brain tissue.
The signs and symptoms of a brain tumor vary greatly and depend on the brain tumor’s size, location, and rate of growth. General signs and symptoms caused by brain tumors may include:
Vision problems. People with brain tumors may have problems seeing out of one or both eyes (double vision). Some people lose their peripheral (side) vision or experience blind spots. Other visual disturbances include blurred vision, light sensitivity, and loss of color vision. Some people also have involuntary eye movements.
- Headaches gradually become more frequent and more severe. The location of the tumor will determine where you feel the headache.
- Headaches that are worse in the morning or while coughing, sneezing, or straining. These symptoms may result from increased pressure within your skull.
- Nausea and vomiting. Pressure on certain areas of your brain may affect your stomach and intestines, causing nausea and vomiting.
- Changes in speech, vision, or hearing. Tumors can form in areas of your brain that control these functions, resulting in changes such as blurred vision or hearing loss in one ear.
- Personality or behavior changes. Tumors near areas of the brain that control emotions, behaviors, personality, and thinking can cause changes such as inappropriate laughter or crying (pseudobulbar affect), irritability, confusion, trouble concentrating or remembering things (cognitive dysfunction), lack of inhibition (disinhibition), anxiety, depression, euphoria (extreme feeling of well-being), mania (abnormally elevated mood).
