Symptoms of brain cancer

Unfortunately, the symptoms of brain cancer can be so varied that they can easily be mistaken for an entirely different disease.

Moreover, not all types of cancer show any signs at all: many oncological formations have a latent course and reveal themselves already at the last, inoperable stage. This is the insidiousness of cancerous tumors, because most situations with early detection of brain oncology occur by pure chance, when the patient does not even suspect that he has any problem.

However, there are quite a few symptoms that many patients ignore, not realizing the seriousness of the problem, and you definitely need to know about them.

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The first symptoms of brain cancer

Clinical manifestations of brain cancer may depend on the location of the pathology in relation to the functional parts of the central nervous system. Simply put, if the tumor is located near the motor center, the patient may experience signs of impaired coordination, control of the amplitude of movements, etc. If the cancer is located along the optic nerves, the symptoms will be dominated by visual disturbances: deterioration of focus, double vision, ripples in the eyes.

The manifestations of meningeal cancer are varied, and here is what patients complain about most often:

• headache - painful, constant, especially during physical exertion, sudden movements, intensifying in the morning; tablets (analgesics, paracetamol), as a rule, do not help;
• often feel nauseous, there are urges to vomit, but they do not bring the expected relief;
• you constantly feel sleepy, which makes it impossible to concentrate on work or study;
• visual and auditory disorders are observed;
• sometimes speech becomes confused, phrases may not be connected to each other, the train of thought loses its logic;
• memory deteriorates, sometimes it is impossible to remember certain events, even those that happened very recently; it becomes difficult to switch consciousness, to concentrate on something;
• muscles become weak, flaccid, some movements may be difficult;
• a depressed state with elements of depression and apathy appears, and interest in the surrounding world is gradually lost;
• sensitivity of fingers and limbs may be impaired, sometimes on one side;
• non-existent visions may appear, smells may change, and extraneous sounds may be heard;
• In more severe cases, convulsive conditions occur.

These symptoms may appear separately or in combination with each other, gradually increasing along with the progression of the tumor process.

The symptoms listed do not always indicate cancer: only special diagnostics can confirm the diagnosis.

Symptoms of Brain Cancer in Children

Clinical symptoms of brain cancer in children have their own specific differences and characteristics. Firstly, this is a long latent period of the disease, which may be associated with the constant growth of the volume of the child's cranium and the excellent vital resources of the young organism.

Pain sometimes appears not only in the head, but also in other organs, as a result of which the diagnosis of the disease becomes even more confusing.

Headaches and other symptoms of brain cancer in children are often not constant, but rather intermittent, which can be mistakenly perceived as a sign of inflammatory pathology.

Slowly progressive signs of increased intracranial pressure can gradually manifest themselves in the child's mental development: children become apathetic, refuse to play, often cry and act up for no apparent reason.

Older children begin to avoid communication, become withdrawn, lose their appetite, and lose weight.

The child often does not mention headaches at all; the presence of a problem is revealed only by his changed behavior, which the child himself cannot explain in any way.

The symptoms become more vivid and specific when the brain functions are decompensated. In such cases, the appearance of obvious headaches, pressure fluctuations, hallucinations, nausea, and cardiac disorders are typical.

Symptoms of Bone Marrow Cancer

Bone marrow cancer is relatively rare as a primary disease. It most often occurs as a metastatic lesion from a parent tumor located in another organ.

As in most cases of cancer development, the first signs of oncological bone marrow damage remain unnoticed or ignored. Among them are such fairly common symptoms as significant weight loss, unmotivated fatigue, sluggish appetite, periodic changes in body temperature, decreased immunity.

More specific symptoms include:

• the appearance of incomprehensible bone growths in the absence of traumatic damage to this area of the bone;
• the occurrence of spontaneous fractures without cause;
• persistent pain in some bones;
• pain and swelling in the joints;
• decreased motor activity and range of motion;
• paleness of the skin, decreased hemoglobin levels in the blood;
• muscle weakness, fatigue, difficulty breathing.

Cancer symptoms may differ in intensity and variety of manifestations. In addition, these symptoms may accompany many other diseases, so when making a diagnosis, anamnesis data will be extremely insufficient, additional examination methods are required.

Symptoms of spinal cord cancer

Spinal cord cancer most often develops as a result of metastasis from another tumor of any localization. Symptoms of spinal cord cancer are divided into three stages:

• the radicular stage is accompanied by severe pain in the area where certain nerve endings exit. Depending on the location along the spine where the tumor develops, specific symptoms are determined. For example, a cancerous tumor located at the level of the lungs may give signs characteristic of pulmonary or heart disease; a tumor at the level of the lower back is mistaken for kidney or intestinal pathology, etc. One of the few characteristic signs of this period is an increase in spinal pain during sleep, when the body is in a horizontal position;
• The Brownsequard stage is a deeper stage, in which initial disorders of the abdominal organs appear (disorders of the act of defecation, enuresis, renal failure). Unpleasant sensations when walking are possible, associated with increasing muscle weakness;
• The paraplegic stage is the extreme stage, characterized by vegetative disorders and decreased tissue nutrition. The first signs of this stage are numbness of the limbs, decreased pain and temperature sensitivity, urinary and fecal incontinence. Pain in the spine may no longer be present at this stage.

You should not lean towards any diagnosis based only on the similarity of clinical symptoms of the disease. Any disease, especially oncological pathology, should be examined comprehensively using laboratory and hardware research methods. However, ignoring suspicious symptoms of brain cancer is also unacceptable: not only your health, but also your life depends on it.