Primary brain tumours: a review of research and management

The brain is an incredibly complex organ that contains some 10 billion working cells. Brain tumours can arise from the brain itself, the meninges, the nerves at the base of the brain, or even from outside the brain. The frequency of brain tumours directly reflects the relative proportion of each cell type present at the site of the initial tumour. Symptoms produced by a brain tumour often mimic the symptoms of other diseases and vice versa. Because symptoms can develop gradually, and can be subtle, there may well be a long delay between symptom onset and diagnosis. Treatment of brain tumour depends on the type and stage of the disease, and the patient's age and overall state of health. Treatment options fall into three categories: surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Biological therapy is also being studied in clinical trials. Primary brain tumours occur in all age groups, but are significantly more frequent in children and adolescents under 15 years old and the elderly. For every person diagnosed with a brain tumour (over 100,000 people annually in the US), an average of 22 years of life expectancy is lost. The estimated annual cost, direct and indirect, of the disease in the US is $104 billion.