In my clinic, I found that some patients have already grown very big when they found the tumor, which brings more risks and complications to the surgery and may cost more money to the patients. In fact, most of the intracranial tumors have some “first signs” in the early stage of development, just because people may not have the knowledge of this area and ignore the early “warning”, so they miss the time to find the tumor and treat it in time. Here are some common symptoms of intracranial tumors, hope they will be helpful to you. Progressive headache Don’t be afraid to think that if you have headache, you have brain tumor. In fact, it is very common for people to have headache symptoms throughout their life! You may have a headache if you have a cold; you may have a headache if you don’t sleep well; you may have a headache if you are in a bad mood. Many brain tumors do not necessarily start with a headache. Headache related to brain tumor is mainly caused by the increase of intracranial pressure, and it will increase progressively as the tumor grows (or hydrocephalus worsens); while headache caused by other reasons will disappear on its own after the primary cause gets better (such as after recovering from cold). If the headache is accompanied by other symptoms, such as vomiting, loss of vision, poor memory, slowed reaction, or any of the symptoms listed in 2 to 10 below, intracranial tumors or other occupying lesions are highly suspected. Unilateral tinnitus or hearing loss Unilateral hearing loss is often not easily detectable because it does not affect daily life. However, if unilateral hearing loss is preceded by a longer period of unilateral tinnitus, you should be highly alert! Unilateral tinnitus is the earliest and most common “warning” of an auditory neuroma. If detected early and the tumor is small, it can be treated with gamma knife to avoid the pain of surgery (there are some small auditory neuromas that are followed up for a long time after gamma knife and then operated). Many of the patients with auditory neuroma seen in the clinic have larger tumors, even compressing the brainstem and cerebellum and developing hydrocephalus or ataxia (uncoordinated arms and legs). When I asked them about their medical history, basically, the side where the tumor was growing had early tinnitus, followed by gradual hearing loss and unstable walking before they went to the doctor. Therefore, if unilateral tinnitus or hearing loss occurs, early medical attention should be sought. Some patients with decreased vision think it is myopia or presbyopia and neglect further examination. Some go to ophthalmology, and experienced ophthalmologists may think of intracranial problems and do an MRI, which reveals intracranial tumor. Some even visit ophthalmology repeatedly, their vision is getting worse and worse, and even one eye is blind before they remember to do intracranial examination, by which time the tumor is already very big and may encircle the surrounding neurovascular, the risk of surgery is greatly increased, and some of them lose the chance of total resection.