More than 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with a brain tumor each year. About half of these tumors are primary, half are metastatic. Symptoms Brain tumors are often difficult to diagnose because their symptoms may mimic other diseases. The symptoms of a brain tumor may appear gradually, causing change as they evolve. There can be a long period of time from the beginning of symptoms to the actual diagnosis.
Some tumors are more rapid in their growth and can cause symptoms quickly.
Testing for brain tumors is two fold. If the result of this examination leads your doctor to suspect the possible area of central nervous system involvement, additional diagnostic testing will be scheduled to define the lesion which is presumed to be a brain tumor. X-rays are taken of the brain, and this information is fed into a computer which transforms the data into a picture. In some cases, the patient is injected with a special dye to make abnormal tissue more evident. Magnetic signals are fed into a computer which assembles a picture.