Signs and Symptoms
As cancer cells coat or glaze the brain, spine, and nerves, they can cause a range of symptoms, including:
- Headaches
- Nausea or vomiting (which can also appear as loss of appetite)
- Double vision or poor vision
- Changes in alertness or sleep
- Change in mood or behavior
- Difficulty with thinking, memory or language
- Confusion, disorientation, paranoia, hallucinations
- Seizures
- Dizziness
- Hearing changes or loss
- Weakness in the face or facial drooping
- Difficulty swallowing or speaking (such as slurred speech)
- Difficulty walking
- Pain in the neck or back
- Weakness in the arms, legs, hands or feet
- Lack of coordination and function
- Loss of bladder or bowel control (incontinence)
- Difficulty peeing or emptying the bladder (which can lead to urinary tract infections)
- Difficulty pooping (constipation)
- Numbness or tingling
These are the most common symptoms, but there are other symptoms that may be caused by the build up of cancer cells irritating or damaging nerves throughout the nervous system. For example, some people have reported loss of test or smell, issues with teeth, dry mouth, or tremors.
You may have only one of these symptoms or a few of these symptoms. Having one symptom does not mean that you will have others on this list. These symptoms may come and go or get worse over time.
Symptoms with progression and toward end-of-life
As the cancer progresses, these symptoms often get worse. Toward the end of life, many caregivers report these seeing the following signs and symptoms:
- Severe confusion and loss of memory
- Disorientation
- Hallucinations
- Extreme fatigue, including sleeping most of the day
- Generalized body pain
- Eating only small amounts or nothing at all
- Inability to move or function
- Becoming non-verbal
- Difficulty swallowing / build-up of saliva / choking on saliva
- Changing in breathing patterns
As with earlier symptoms, every person is different and not everyone will experience all of these symptoms or signs.