Figures show that a half of patients are still alive after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, compared with thirty years ago when less than 10% of patients with the most aggressive form of brain tumour glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) survived for more than six months.
The research conducted by the University of Glasgow, shows that the improvement in survival for people with highly malignant brain tumours can be linked to improvements in diagnosis and treatment. New ‘genetic marker’ research can also help predict which treatments will work for individual patients, so that specific care can be targeted towards them.
In Britain each year £420 million is spent on studying cancer, however less than 1% of this goes towards brain cancer research even though it kills 3,400 people every year. GMB accounts for 17% of all primary brain tumours, and fewer than 4 per cent of people diagnosed with the tumour are still alive five years later.
An innovative treatment for brain tumours is Gamma Knife® radiosurgery.
