Some symptoms of brain cancer can resemble the symptoms of other diseases. Symptoms of brain cancer that appear depend on the type of cancer, its location, and the growth rate (stage) of brain cancer. To anticipate it, let's see the explanation about brain cancer symptoms.
The brain is an organ that plays an important role in regulating various systems in the body. Brain functions include regulating body movement, body temperature, and hormone production. Not only that, the brain also controls emotions, memory, and intelligence, and interprets information captured by the five senses.
When brain cancer occurs, some brain functions will be disrupted. These disorders can be recognized as symptoms of brain cancer. If these symptoms are recognized quickly, brain cancer can be detected and treated early, so the chances of successful treatment will be greater.
Characteristics of Brain Cancer
Brain cancer can cause different symptoms in each patient. But one of the common features of brain cancer is a persistent headache. These headaches tend to get worse when you wake up, cough, sneeze, or change your head position, and don't get better with over-the-counter painkillers.
In addition to headaches, brain cancer can also make the sufferer easily tired, difficult or unable to move one part of the body (paralysis), frequent nausea, difficulty speaking, swallowing, difficulty walking, tingling or numbness in certain body parts, seizures, or showing signs of increased pressure inside the head.
Other symptoms that may appear are impaired hearing, vision, and balance and body coordination.
In addition to physical symptoms, brain cancer can also cause psychological or mental symptoms, such as:
- Decreased memory or forgetfulness.
- Difficulty concentrating.
- Sleep disturbances or insomnia.
- mood swings (mood) that occurs for no apparent reason, for example from being cheerful at first to being sad, depressed, or irritable.
- Changes in behavior and personality, for example, initially having good behavior and being patient to being aggressive and easily emotional.
- His reasoning declines, is bad at judging things, and has difficulty holding back (impulsivity).
- Often feel confused.
- Hallucinatory disorders.
How to Confirm Brain Cancer
Given that some of the symptoms above can also be caused by other diseases, such as stroke, brain hemorrhage, or brain infection, it is not enough to rely on the symptoms experienced to make sure that the diagnosis of brain cancer is not enough. The best way to confirm brain cancer is to see a doctor.
The doctor will carry out a complete examination, starting from evaluating the symptoms you feel, conducting a physical examination, and performing additional examinations in the form of a brain scan, namely a CT scan, PET scan, and brain MRI. If necessary, the doctor will also recommend a biopsy of brain tissue, to determine the type and stage of cancer.
After the diagnosis of brain cancer is confirmed, the treatment steps can be surgical removal of brain cancer, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. During brain cancer treatment, patients will need various supportive therapies, such as nutritional therapy, medical rehabilitation therapy (physiotherapy), and psychotherapy.
In conclusion, the symptoms of brain cancer may resemble the symptoms of other disorders of the brain. To be sure, you need to see a neurologist. When brain cancer treatment is done early, the chances of success will be greater.