Six Brain Tumour Symptoms You Should Not Ignore:
Warning signs vary for the rare, but often serious, diagnosis
By: Michelle Crouch - Published February 16, 2022 - Updated January 08, 2024
Roughly 1 million Americans are living with a brain tumour, and nearly 80,000 adults were diagnosed with a primary brain tumour in 2023, according to the National Brain Tumour Society. Each year, 70,000 to 170,000 people are diagnosed with secondary (metastatic) brain tumours, caused by a cancer that started in the lung, colon or elsewhere in the body. Older adults are at higher risk for these types of tumours because they’re more likely to have experienced cancer.
Nearly half of all glioblastomas — one of the most aggressive and deadly types of brain tumour — are diagnosed in patients older than 65. Not all brain tumours are cancerous; in fact, most aren’t. But, even benign tumours can be life-threatening and can cause debilitating symptoms, such as blurry vision, hearing loss, and confusion.
An individual’s prognosis depends on what type of tumour they have and how quickly it is detected, says Katy Peters, M.D., a neurologist in the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumour Centre at the Duke University School of Medicine. “For most every kind of brain tumour, if you can get it out early while it’s smaller, you have a better prognosis,” she says. “We want to catch things before they cause any permanent damage.” For 30 out of 100,000 American adults, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine — common warning signs can often point to other health conditions, Peters notes. She recommends talking with a doctor right away if you experience any of the following symptoms:
1. A seizure or muscle spasms
A seizure happens when something causes a disturbance. Symptoms vary, depending on the tumour’s location. Because brain tumours are so rare — affecting about 30 out of 100,000 American adults, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine — common warning signs can often point to other health conditions.
Some seizures (called tonic-clonic or grand mal seizures) cause a person to cry out, fall to the floor and experience all-over muscle jerks or spasms. Other types of seizures affect only one part of the body or cause the afflicted person to seem temporarily confused or unaware of what’s happening.
What a seizure looks like can vary based on where the tumour is located, Black says. If you have a tumour developing in the area of your brain that controls the left side of your body, for example, you may notice twitching only in your left arm or leg.
Seizures usually last just a few minutes, then subside. “The key thing with a seizure is that it comes and goes.”
2. New or unusual headache
A new type of headache or one that feels localized to a specific part of your head is another early indication of a brain tumour, Peters says. She points out, however, that many other conditions can cause a headache.
Headaches caused by a tumour are often worse in the morning. “When you lay flat, there’s more pressure in your head,” and then as the day goes on and you’re walking around, the pressure goes down.”
The pain caused by a tumour tends to get worse when you cough, use the bathroom or exercise, she says, because those activities increase inter-cranial pressure.
3. Numbness, weakness or tingling on one side
Many people know that numbness, weakness or tingling on one side of the body can be a sign of a stroke, but, they may not realize it can also indicate a brain tumour.
One difference is that tingling caused by a tumour may come and go for months, but stroke symptoms tend to persist. Many brain tumour patients describe “a creeping effect,” with numbness or tingling starting in their hands and progressing to their arms, then their shoulders.
Because the tingling is temporary and subtle, some patients don’t report it to their medical provider. “I have [brain tumour] patients all the time who give their history and say they started to have tingling three months ago or six months ago.”
4. Confusion or loss of awareness
Sometimes brain tumours trigger a type of seizure that causes the person to zone out or become unaware of their surroundings for a short time. Called complex partial seizures or focal impaired awareness seizures, they may not be recognized as seizures because people tend to think of the classic type that causes muscle convulsions.
Peters describes complex partial seizures this way: “You’re talking to a loved one, and all of a sudden, they are staring into space and blanked out and miss what just happened in the conversation.” Afterward, the person may seem confused and have no memory of the past few minutes.
5. Unexplained speech, vision or hearing problems
If a tumour is growing in the area that affects language and speech, you may have moments when you suddenly have trouble expressing words or understanding what is being said. If it’s growing near the visual pathways in your brain, you may experience vision problems, lose your peripheral vision on one side or see flashing lights.
Similarly, if you lose your hearing on one side or start to develop vertigo or tinnitus, it can be a sign of a tumour pressing on your hearing or balance nerves.
6. Personality changes
Occasionally, a brain tumour causes changes in someone’s personality or behaviour. If a friend or family member is acting strangely — perhaps they are more aggressive than usual or seem to be making bad decisions — that can be an early symptom of a tumour growing in the frontal lobe of the brain, which controls personality.
Editor's note: This story, first published Feb. 16, 2022, has been updated to include new information.
Michelle Crouch is a contributing writer who has covered health and personal finance for some of the nation’s top consumer publications. Her work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, Prevention, The Washington Post and The New York Times.