Symptoms of Oligodendrogliomas

Symptoms of an oligodendroglioma brain tumor depend on where in the brain the tumor is located. Many oligodendrogliomas appear in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.

If a brain tumor is located in the frontal lobe, symptoms may include gradual changes in mood and personality, impaired judgment, seizures, and weakness or numbness in muscles on one side of the body.

If an oligodendroglioma is in the temporal lobe, the tumor may lead to language difficulties, both speaking and understanding, as well as memory problems and seizures.

Common symptoms of an oligodendroglioma are:

  • Altered sensations (strange smells, hallucinations relating to sense of smell)
  • Changes in personality
  • Difficulty with balance
  • Dizziness
  • Headaches not alleviated by painkillers, worse in the morning, may cause nausea/vomiting
  • Muscular weakness on one side of body and loss of control of body movements
  • Nausea
  • Seizures (most individuals with this type of brain tumor experience seizures)

Visual loss (altered vision or visual hallucinations)

Our Care Team

  • Chair and Neurosurgeon-in-Chief
  • Margaret and Robert J. Hariri, MD ’87, PhD ’87 Professor of Neurological Surgery
  • Vice Provost of Business Affairs and Integration
Phone: 212-746-4684
  • Chief of Neurological Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist
  • Professor, Neurological Surgery
  • Director, Brain Metastases Program
  • Co-director, William Rhodes and Louise Tilzer-Rhodes Center for Glioblastoma
Phone: 212-746-1996 (Manhattan) / 718-780-3070 (Brooklyn)
  • Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery
  • Leon Levy Research Fellow
  • Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute
Phone: 646-962-3389
  • Director, Neurosurgical Radiosurgery
  • Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery
Phone: 212-746-2438
  • Chief of Neurological Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens
  • Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery
  • Co-director, Weill Cornell Medicine CSF Leak Program
Phone: (718) 670-1837
  • Vice Chair for Clinical Research
  • David and Ursel Barnes Professor of Minimally Invasive Brain Surgery
  • Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Otolaryngology
  • Director, Center for Epilepsy and Pituitary Surgery
  • Co-Director, Surgical Neuro-oncology
Phone: 212-746-5620

Reviewed by Rohan Ramakrishna, MD
Last reviewed/last updated: December 2020

Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery 525 East 68 Street, Box 99 New York, NY 10065 Phone: 866-426-7787