Metastatic brain tumor

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Brain

Metastatic brain tumor

Alternative Names:

Brain tumor - metastatic (secondary); Cancer - brain tumor (metastatic)
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

Note: The specific symptoms vary. The symptoms commonly seen with most types of metastatic brain tumor are those caused by increased pressure in the brain.
Signs and tests:

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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.