Early symptoms of glioma

Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
Updated on September 07, 2024
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For patients with glioma, in the early stages of the disease, symptoms often manifest as mild headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. The symptoms are usually mild and tolerable for patients, and most patients do not pay enough attention, which can easily lead to missed and misdiagnosis. However, as the tumor volume increases, the patient's symptoms of headache, dizziness, and other discomforts gradually worsen, and may even show episodic outbreaks and a persistent worsening state. In addition to headaches and dizziness, some patients also exhibit significant motor dysfunction, exhibiting symptoms such as hemiplegia and aphasia. Patients with severe conditions may even experience widespread intracranial pressure increase, and life-threatening conditions due to the induction of brain herniation.

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Written by Gao Yi Shen
Neurosurgery
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Is a glioma benign or malignant?

Glioblastoma is the most common form of malignant tumor inside the skull, and the vast majority of glioblastomas are highly malignant. Once changes in this condition are detected, generally, the patient doesn't have much time left. If it is a relatively better glioblastoma, which means it is highly differentiated, the survival time is about 1-2 years. For some poorer glioblastomas, or those with low differentiation, their survival period is often only about six months, and they continuously spread along with nerve fibers to the surrounding areas. They might even metastasize to distant places through cerebrospinal fluid, blood, lymph, and other means. Therefore, even if surgery is used to remove a single lesion, other parts of the body may still demonstrate metastatic lesions. Hence, the treatment approach for this is comprehensive.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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Is glioma malignant?

Glioblastoma is a type of malignant tumor, which generally grows at a fast pace. In the early stages of the disease, the glioma often adheres to the surrounding tissues, posing significant challenges for future complete surgical removal. At the same time, extensive cerebral edema occurs around the glioma. If prolonged, this can lead to a serious increase in intracranial pressure, manifesting as repeated headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting in the patient. Over time, this condition may also lead to optic nerve atrophy, resulting in decreased vision and visual field defects. Diagnosis generally benefits from cranial CT or MRI scans, but definitive diagnosis still requires surgical removal of the tumor. A small amount of tumor tissue is typically retained for pathological biopsy.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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What are the symptoms of glioma?

Patients with gliomas often exhibit a range of symptoms including significant headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. As the tumor grows, it typically leads to an evident increase in intracranial pressure. Besides the original symptoms, some patients may also experience marked declines in vision, visual field deficits, and papilledema. The growth of the tumor inevitably compresses surrounding tissues, nerves, and blood vessels, leading to a variety of symptoms of neurological damage, such as noticeable hemiplegia, aphasia, and even abnormal sensations in one side of the body, characterized by numbness, pain, and a pins-and-needles sensation.

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Written by Jiang Fang Shuai
Neurosurgery
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Late-stage symptoms of glioma

The continuous growth of gliomas or the occurrence of tumor stroke hemorrhages can lead to very high intracranial pressure in patients in the late stages. This results in severe headaches with persistent attacks, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Projectile vomiting is a typical manifestation of increased intracranial pressure. Patients may experience changes in consciousness, such as drowsiness, stupor, and coma. As the condition progresses to brain herniation, patients can fall into a deep coma, with either bilateral or unilateral pupil dilation and loss of light reflex. Vital signs become unstable, ultimately leading to death due to heart and respiratory arrest caused by the brain herniation.

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Written by Gao Yi Shen
Neurosurgery
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Is glioma cancer?

Gliomas are the most common type of malignant tumor within the skull, and they are also a form of cancer. Cancer is a very broad term essentially describing a process where some cells proliferate abnormally and differentiate without dying, and gliomas proliferate in the same way. To give an analogy, think of a bunch of villains: if there are heroes to suppress and resolve these villains, then generally, people would not develop tumors. However, if this group of villains gradually becomes stronger and defeats the heroes, then these villains gather within the body, forming a tumor. The same principle applies to the formation of cancer. Therefore, for such cases, it is crucial to detect cancer early and begin the appropriate treatment. Early treatment can have some very beneficial effects on the prognosis for the patient.