What are the early warning signs of a possible brain tumour?

Common symptoms include:

• Headache, which can be severe and worsening with activity or in the morning
• Seizures. People may have different types of seizures. Some medicines can help prevent or control them. Motor seizures, also known as convulsions, are sudden involuntary movements of a person's muscles. The different types of seizures and what they look like are listed below:
• Myclonic
• Single or multiple muscle tweaks, jerks, cramps
• Tonic-clonic
• Decreased consciousness and body tone, followed by twitch and resting muscles called contractions.
• Loss of control of body functions, such as loss of bladder control
• Breathing may be of short duration of 30 seconds and a person's skin may be blue, purple, brown, white or green.
• After this type of seizure, a person may be sleepy and may experience headaches, confusion, weakness, numbness, and sore muscles.
• Receptive
• Changes in sensation, vision, smell and / or hearing without losing consciousness
• Complex partial
• Loss of awareness or partial or total loss of consciousness may occur
• Repetition may be associated with unintentional movements, such as repetition
• Personality or memory changes
• Vomiting or nausea
• Fatigue
• Sleepiness
• Sleep problem
• Memory problem
• Changes in ability to walk or perform daily activities

Symptoms specific to the location of the tumour may include:

• Pressure or headache near the tumour
• Loss of balance and difficulty with fine motor skills is associated with a tumour in the cerebellum.
• Changes in judgment, including loss of initiative, lethargy, and muscle weakness or paralysis are associated with a tumour in the frontal lobe of the brain.
• Partial or complete loss of vision is caused by a tumour in the occipital lobe or temporal lobe of the cerebrum.
• Changes in speech, hearing, memory, or emotional state, such as aggression and understanding problems or retrieving words can develop from a tumour in the frontal and temporal lobe of the brain.
• Touch or pressure on 1 side of the body, altered perception of weakness of the hands or feet or confusion with the left and right parts of the body is associated with a tumour in the frontal or parietal lobe of the cerebrum.
• Inability to look up may be due to a tumour of the pineal gland.
• Lactation, which is the secretion of breast milk, and menstrual changes in women, and growth in hands and feet in adults are associated with a pituitary tumour.
• Difficulty swallowing, facial weakness or numbness or double vision is a symptom of a tumour in the brain stem.
• Vision changes, including loss of part of vision or double vision, may result from a tumour in the temporal lobe, occipital lobe, or brain stem.

 Reference: Vineet Rana