Symptoms and Diagnosis

It depends on where the tumour is in the brain and how quickly or how slowly it grows. Sometimes you may not have any symptoms to begin with, but they may develop very slowly over time, or can develop suddenly.

Common symptoms can include:

• Seizures (fits) - Seizures can happen with primary brain tumours. Some seizures may cause you to go blank and stop responding to people for a few seconds or minutes. Other seizures cause twitching or jerking of your hands, arms or legs or some seizures can affect your whole body.
• Changes in behaviour (memory problems or personality changes) - You may have memory problems or personality changes that your family and close friends may notice when this begins to happen.
• Weakness down one side of the body - Progressive weakness down one side of the body

Less common symptoms:

• Headache
• Lack of co-ordination
• Unsteadiness
• Drowsiness
• Feeling sick or being sick
• Flickering of the eyes
• Loss of their vision
• Problems with swallowing or speech
• Difficulty understanding words, reading, writing and simple calculations

Macmillan have a video available on their website talking about possible symptoms of a brain tumour: Signs and symptoms of a brain tumour - Macmillan Cancer Support

There is information about neuro-oncology which covers the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours on the University Hospital Southampton website: Neuro-oncology- University Hospital Southampton