What are the main major symptoms of brain tumours?

Brain resides inside a precisely pressure-controlled cavity covered by a hard skull that does not allow brain or anything inside to expand in size.

When a tumour mass grows from inside this hard skull (be it from brain or from its coverings), it tries to occupy more space at the cost of space meant for the normally functioning brain. So the brain and cranial nerves emerging from it get compressed-this is called in medical parlance as “raised intracranial tension” (ICT).

Now coming to the question, signs are what the doctor sees in the patient and symptoms are what the patient feels him/herself. All these symptoms and signs are obviously the result of raised intracranial tension.

Symptoms

1.      Headache(usually the first symptom)

2.      Vomiting (sudden, projectile)

3.      Dizziness and confusion, unconsciousness in severe ICT

4.      Vision problems leading to blindness

5.      Weakness or reduced sensations in arms or legs or face (specific to the site of the tumour in the brain)

6.      Diplopia

Signs

1.      Cushing's triad-bradycardia (low pulse rate), hypertension(high blood pressure), irregular breathing

2.      Ipsilateral hemiparesis- weakness of one half of the body

3.      Lateral rectus palsy (due to Abducens nerve compression)

Having said all this, these symptoms are not specific to only brain tumor but can also be present in many other non-cancer diseases.

Eg: Headache is usually due to stress/common cold than a brain tumor. Similarly weakness of part of a body can be due to stroke.

Finally the tool required to diagnose brain tumor is the brain. I meant the doctor's brain, which does a complex interpretation behind a seemingly casual face, with all the patient's symptoms, the signs that are observed and the medical scan images to narrow down the diagnosis to a brain tumor.

Reference: Karthick Mani