Symptoms of brain and spinal cord tumours

Brain and spinal cord tumours may not cause any signs and symptoms in their early stages. Signs and symptoms often appear as the tumour grows and puts pressure on the surrounding brain tissue or the spinal cord or pushes the brain against the skull.

The signs and symptoms of a brain tumour depend on where the tumour is in the brain. They include:

• a headache that may be worse in the morning, get worse with activity or wake you up at night
• seizures
• changes in personality, thinking, memory and behaviour
• difficulty speaking or understanding words
• weakness on one side of the body
• problems with balance
• dizziness
• nausea and vomiting
• vision problems, including blurred vision, double vision and loss of vision
• hearing problems, including ringing in the ears
• difficulty with fine motor skills (small, precise movements of fingers and toes)
• trouble swallowing
• drowsiness
• fatigue
• numbness in part of the body
• confusion (being less aware of what’s going on around you)
• coma

The signs and symptoms of spinal cord tumours include:

• back or neck pain that may extend to the arms or legs and may be dull, sharp, burning or worse at night
• weakness
• numbness
• a lack of coordination that is usually on both sides of the body
• changes in posture
• difficulty walking
• bladder problems, such as an intense need to pee (urinate), an inability to pee or a loss of bladder control (incontinence)
• bowel problems, such as constipation or a loss of bowel control (incontinence)

Some spinal cord tumours can cause Brown-Séquard syndrome. This syndrome causes a loss of feeling and movement on the same side of the body as the tumour and a loss of pain and temperature sensation on the other side of the body.

In some cases, brain or spinal cord tumours can cause serious problems. These cancer-related emergencies need to be treated right away:

• increased intracranial pressure (ICP)
• spinal cord compression