Health Topic

Brain Tumors

A brain tumor is a growth of abnormal cells in the brain tissue. Learn the types of tumors, symptoms, how they are diagnosed and treatment options.

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Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Brain Tumors

A brain tumor is a growth of abnormal cells in the tissues of the brain. Brain tumors can be benign, with no cancer cells, or malignant, with cancer cells that grow quickly. Some are primary brain tumors, which start in the brain. Others are metastatic, and they start somewhere else in the body and move to the brain.

Brain tumors can cause many symptoms. Some of the most common are:

  • Headaches, often in the morning
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Changes in your ability to talk, hear, or see
  • Problems with balance or walking
  • Problems with thinking or memory
  • Feeling weak or sleepy
  • Changes in your mood or behavior
  • Seizures

Doctors diagnose brain tumors by doing a neurologic exam and tests including an MRI, CT scan, and biopsy. Treatment options include watchful waiting, surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. Targeted therapy uses drugs or other substances that attack cancer cells with less harm to normal cells. Many people get a combination of treatments.

It sits within Cancers and Brain and Nerves.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Cancer Institute.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Brain Tumors

4,426 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

Start Here

Symptoms

Diagnosis and Tests

Treatments and Therapies

Prevention and Risk Factors

Living With

Related Issues

Genetics

Statistics and Research

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Brain Neoplasms. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Brain Tumors, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.