There are over 600,000 people in the US living with a primary brain tumor diagnosis.
More than 60,000 adults and children will be newly diagnosed this year.
Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, their effects on an individual's physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating.
Complex, Damaging, and Too-Often Deadly
- Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, their effects on an individual's physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating.
- The five-year survival rate after diagnosis with a primary malignant brain/central nervous system tumor is 35.10%. The five-year survival rate for glioblastoma, the most common and deadly brain tumor, is 4.46%.
- Brain tumors are the leading cause of death from solid tumors in children under the age of 20, and are the third leading cause of death from cancer in young adults ages 20-39.
- Brain tumors may be either malignant or non-malignant (“benign”), but can be life-threatening in either case.
Difficulties in Detection, Treatment, and Quality of Life
There are few known risk factors for brain tumors and no strategies for early detection. Symptoms of brain tumors can be attributed to other conditions, leading to delays in diagnosis. Treatment is complex and even when it is successful in treating the tumor, it can result in damage to the brain and devastating after-affects.
- Treatment of brain tumors is complicated by fact that there are more than 120 different types of tumors and because of the tumor’s location.
- Treatment options for brain tumor patients are limited.
- Long-term changes in quality of life following brain tumor treatment are common and can include impairments to physical and cognitive functioning which impact not only the patient, but their loved-ones.
- Brain tumors are often financially devastating, not only because of the cost of treatment but because the impact of tumor and treatment on the brain frequently make it difficult for brain tumor survivors to work.
Slow Research Progress
In 2000, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) convened the Brain Tumor Progress Review Group. The report from this panel of brain tumor experts outlined goals that have yet to be achieved, more than a decade later. Research progress is slow to find therapies that treat brain tumors and result in better quality of life.
- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCI are primary funders of brain tumor research. A trend of several years of flat funding levels for NIH and NCI was reversed in 2009.
- For FY2008, 2.8% of the NCI budget was allocated for brain tumor research. Brain tumor research progress requires sustained and growing funding commitment and brain-tumor specific research solutions.
- Important advances have recently been made in understanding brain tumors, including the genetic characterization of glioblastoma multiforme, one of the deadliest forms of brain tumor, but much work remains to be done before better therapies are available.
- There still remain daunting obstacles to the development of new treatments and there are no strategies for screening or early detection of brain tumors.
