The first symptom of a metastasis is headache. Patients who have had cancers of the lung, breast, melanoma, colon or kidney removed in the past must be on constant look out for symptoms of brain metastases. Brain mets may first present as unexpected seizures, or as spontaneous movements which are usually localized to uncontrolled tremors of the hands, the legs, or the face.
Many patients have no symptoms at all.
The metastases are found by routinely checking the brain for tumors. If you are a patient who has had one of the aforementioned cancers, it would be good to remind your doctor, every so often, to order a routine MRI of the brain with a contrast material, as this is the best way of diagnosing tumors before they become problems. Breast cancer patients can develop metastases up to fifteen years after the initial cancer is removed but most occur around the third year. Lung cancer patients will develop metastases if they live long enough. Here it would be good to know what type of cancer you have because Squamous Cell cancers metastasize very infrequently, while Oat Cell cancers and Adenocarcinomas occur much more frequently.