How to detect brain tumor in early stage? Brain tumor, also known as intracranial tumor, has benign and malignant characteristics, with an annual incidence rate of about 10/100,000, accounting for about 2% of the whole body tumors. The early warning signals are: 1. Early morning headache Headache often occurs at four or five o’clock in the morning, often waking up in pain in the middle of sleep, and the more asleep you are, the heavier the pain. After getting up and moving around, the headache gradually reduces and even disappears by 8 or 9 o’clock, so it is called “morning headache”, which is one of the major signs unique to brain tumor. This “early morning headache” occurs because brain tumor partially obstructs the normal cerebrospinal fluid circulation, especially after sleeping, resulting in transient hydrocephalus and severe headache and waking up with pain. After getting up and moving around, the cerebrospinal fluid circulation can be accelerated, so the headache can be relieved. 2. Jet vomiting Compared with vomiting in gastrointestinal diseases, vomiting in brain tumor patients is not accompanied by stomach distention, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and vomiting is not related to eating, but suddenly appears after a headache. Some pediatric patients, because they cannot express other symptoms, often only have unexplained jet vomiting. 3. Mental disorder Brain tumor can cause mental abnormalities, the incidence of which is as high as 25%-40%. Brain tumors located in frontal, temporal, corpus callosum and other parts of the brain are prone to produce psychiatric symptoms. Some of them are giggling, disorientation, lack of self-control, increased language, euphoria, and confused language. Some manifest as movement and behavior disorders, such as groping, strong grip, running around, urinating and defecating anywhere for no reason, and even hallucinations. Some of the early manifestations are dizziness, headache, insomnia, poor memory, forgetfulness, and are misdiagnosed as neurosis. 4.Phantom smell Phantom smell refers to the smell of a non-existent odor, and often some disgusting strange smell, such as “burning rubber”, “burning chicken feathers”, “rotten eggs” smell. The smell of “rotting corpse” is often the same. Why does phantom smell occur? It is because there is a place called hippocampal gyrus in the deep temporal lobe of brain, where the olfactory center is responsible for identifying various odors and producing olfactory memory. Especially when the brain tumor grows, the olfactory center located in the hippocampal gyrus will be affected and disturbed to produce phantom smell. 5. Sudden loss of vision Patients with brain tumor may also suffer from progressive vision loss, which is often mistaken for eye disease and lead to mistreatment. Visual impairment can occur when there is a “malfunction” anywhere in the eye, the optic nerve and the optic center. The area around the optic nerve, which governs visual conduction and crosses some of the nerve fibers left and right as it travels through the brain, is a good site for pituitary tumors and craniopharyngiomas. As the tumor gradually grows, it can cause optic nerve atrophy by compressing the optic nerve crossings, resulting in sudden vision loss or even blindness. In addition to progressive vision loss, brain tumors are often accompanied by visual field defects, and patients often need to tilt their heads to see the full picture of objects. The majority of epilepsy starts before the age of 20, especially in children, and those with adult onset should be alerted to brain tumors. The occurrence of epilepsy is related to the type and location of brain tumor. Tumors growing in the anterior part of the brain, close to the cerebral cortex and tumors that grow slowly and expansively (such as astrocytoma and meningioma) are prone to epilepsy. Most of these tumors are benign or not highly malignant, easy to remove surgically, and can achieve satisfactory results if diagnosed early. However, some patients are misdiagnosed as primary seizures because they have only had seizures for a long time, and only take medication to control them, without further pursuing the cause, thus delaying the early detection of brain tumors. The following points are favorable for early diagnosis: ① First seizure in middle age (around 40 years old). ②Seizures are limited seizures, such as numbness and convulsions in one side of the mouth or limb, or progress from limited seizures to generalized grand mal seizures. ③There are suspicious neurological signs (such as hyperactive tendon reflexes on one side, appearance of pathological reflexes, etc.) and symptoms such as headache or vomiting when examined by a physician. 7. Patients with unilateral eye protrusion Unilateral eye protrusion is also a major ominous sign of brain tumor, which can lead to incomplete eye closure in severe cases. About 50% of brain tumor patients with unilateral eye protrusion are caused by intracranial disorders, the most common cause of which is brain tumor. 8. Unilateral deafness If there is no history of otitis media or trauma, but only one side of the ear gradually loses hearing, it is also likely to be caused by intracranial tumor compressing the auditory nerve. 9. Hyperalgesia The parietal lobe located in the middle of the cerebral hemisphere is specialized in sensory control. A brain tumor in this area may cause the loss of various senses in the opposite side of the body, such as pain, heat and cold, touch, vibration and shape discrimination. 10. Hemiplegia caused by brain tumor includes two different conditions: one is hemiplegia or hemiparesis; the other is ataxia of one limb. The former is mostly seen in cerebral hemisphere tumors, and the latter is mostly seen in cerebellar hemisphere tumors. 11.Limb hypertrophy If it is pituitary growth hormone tumor, its unique clinical signs are thick hands and feet, thick lips, protruding zygomatic arches and jaws, and progressively ugly face, and gigantism may appear in children. 12, Sexual characteristics anomalies may occur in women of childbearing age with non-pregnancy amenorrhea, and in men with impotence, loss of pubic hair, axillary hair and beard. Patients with temporal lobe tumors may experience a sense of unfamiliarity or déjà vu with familiar people (never actually come into contact with them), which may last for a few seconds or minutes. If one or more of the above warning signs occur, it is important to be on high alert. If one or more of the above warning signs occur, it is important to go to a qualified hospital and have a CT or MRI of the head to make a clear diagnosis and avoid delaying treatment. Once the symptoms of intracranial occupancy are very obvious, the tumor is often very large and the effect of surgery is poor. How to detect brain tumor from early warning signs, to achieve early diagnosis and early treatment is especially important to prolong patients’ life and improve their quality of life.