What are the precursors of glioma

Glioma is a relatively common brain tumor. In the early stage, the symptoms are not very obvious, and patients will not care. Generally, they will go to the hospital for treatment only when the symptoms are obvious. At this time, it may be in the late stage. So, what are the early symptoms of brain glioma?

1. Headache: About 30% of patients with brain gliomas experience headaches, and about 70% of them will have gradually worsening headaches. This type of headache is mostly non-specific, but intermittent, mostly located on the same side of the lesion, and mostly manifests as dull pain rather than throbbing pain, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from tension headaches. Brain gliomas usually manifest as forehead pain, while cerebellar gliomas often manifest as pain in the occipital region and neck. If the tumor is too large and produces high intracranial pressure, the headache will be significantly aggravated, sometimes waking up from sleep due to pain, and significantly aggravated during vigorous head movement, sometimes accompanied by nausea and vomiting. If the intracranial hypertension persists for too long, there will also be symptoms of decreased vision.

2. Epileptic seizures: About one-third of patients with brain gliomas show epileptic seizures, and the incidence increases to 50-70% during the course of the disease. Half of the epilepsy is localized, while the other half is systemic. Slow-growing low-grade gliomas are particularly prone to epileptic seizures, while the chance of glioblastoma causing epileptic seizures is very low. Oligodendrogliomas cause epilepsy in about 75-95%, astrocytomas in about 65-70%, and glioblastomas in about 37-50%. The prognosis of high-grade gliomas with epileptic seizures is often better than that without epileptic seizures. The probability and manifestation of epileptic seizures caused by gliomas in different parts are not the same. In addition to causing systemic seizures, epileptic seizures caused by tumors in different parts often have their own characteristics: for example, frontal lobe gliomas can cause paroxysmal convulsions and aphasia in the contralateral limbs; medial temporal lobe tumors are often accompanied by olfactory hallucinations, paroxysmal fear, and palpitations; and parietal lobe tumors can cause hemisensory disorders.

3. Mental changes: About 15% to 20% of glioma patients have changes in mental state as the first symptom, mainly manifested in changes in emotions, personality, cognitive function, calculation ability and memory.

4. Focal neurological symptoms: The different locations of the tumors can also cause corresponding neurological deficit symptoms, such as limb paralysis, sensory impairment, aphasia, unsteady gait, hemianopsia, alexia and agraphia.

5. Cranial nerve symptoms: Damage to different cranial nerves will produce corresponding neurological symptoms, such as decreased vision, diplopia, strabismus and facial paralysis.

Gliomas can show all the symptoms of nervous system diseases, but not all symptoms will appear in a certain person, and these symptoms will vary with the type of tumor, tissue characteristics, growth location and speed. Although I introduce the early clinical symptoms of glioma here, the above symptoms may also be caused by other brain tumors. If the above symptoms are obvious, you must go to the hospital for examination and treatment as soon as possible!