Metastatic brain tumor

Alternative Names

Symptoms

• Headache -- recent, persistent, and a new type for the person
• Vomiting -- with or without nausea
• Personality changes
• Emotional instability, rapid emotional changes
• Memory loss, impaired judgment, calculating deficiencies
• Seizures -- new for the person
• Vision changes -- double vision, decreased vision
• Changes in sensation of a body area
• Weakness of a body area
• Speech difficulties
• Decreased coordination, clumsiness, falls
• Fever (sometimes)
• Lethargy
• General ill feeling
• Pupils of eyes are a different size

Exams and Tests

An examination reveals neurologic changes that are specific to the location of the tumor. Signs of increased pressure within the skull are also common. Some tumors may not show symptoms until they are very large. Then, they suddenly cause rapid decline in the person's neurologic functioning.

The original (primary) tumor may already be known, or it may be discovered after an examination of tumor tissues from the brain indicates that it is a metastatic type of tumor.

• A head CT scan or MRI of the head can confirm the diagnosis of brain tumor and identifies the location of the tumor. MRI is usually more sensitive for finding tumors in the brain.
• Cerebral angiography is occasionally performed. It may show a space-occupying mass, which may or may not be highly vascular (filled with blood vessels).
• A chest x-ray; mammogram ; CT scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis; and other tests are performed to look for the original site of the tumor.
• An EEG may reveal abnormalities.
• An examination of tissue removed from the tumor during surgery or CT scan-guided biopsy is used to confirm the exact type of tumor. If the primary tumor can be located outside of the brain, the primary tumor is usually biopsied rather than the brain tumor.
• A lumbar puncture (spinal tap) is sometimes also performed to test the cerebral spinal fluid.