Funding to fight brain tumours is urgently needed

My grandson was lucky and recovered from a brain tumour. But vital research to combat this dangerous cancer is lagging behind
A young cancer patient
'People affected by brain tumours are younger on average compared with similarly deadly cancers.' Photograph: Ali Jarekji/Reuters

With cancer affecting one in three people, all of us will, at some point in our lives, experience it – either personally or through a loved one. When cancer is diagnosed, it is comforting to know that advances in medical science have increased survival rates dramatically over the last 40 years. However, nothing can prepare you for the moment a child who hasn't even started school is diagnosed with a brain tumour.

When he was four years old, my grandson, Jack, began having headaches and vomiting. Doctors ran neurological tests, including one for meningitis, but couldn't find any cause. They prescribed painkillers but they had no effect. Eventually my daughter convinced the doctor that there was something serious and Jack was sent for a Cat scan, which found bleeding on the brain, and an MRI scan, which revealed the brain tumour.

We were devastated by this news, but still faced further uncertainty. Jack had to undergo risky surgery to find out what kind of tumour it was – only then would they know how to treat it. After six hours under the knife, a slow and painful recovery, and two weeks of waiting for the pathology reports, we were told that the tumour was a particularly rare one, but they decided on no further treatment. Jack faced five years of regular scans before he was given the all-clear.

Now 17 years old and about to go to university, Jack is one of the lucky ones.

A new study by the thinktank New Philanthropy Capital found that only one in five brain tumour patients can expect to survive for more than five years. This is one of the lowest cancer survival rates, and made all the worse because people affected by brain tumours are younger on average compared with similarly deadly cancers. Researchers in Cambridge found that, on average, tumours of the brain and central nervous system shorten a person's life by 20.1 years – more than any other cancer. The average across all cancers is 12.5.

The answer to beating this disease is more research. And research needs funding. NPC's study, commissioned by Brain Tumour Research, found that while funding for research into brain tumours has increased tenfold over the last decade, funding started from a level of next to nothing. Cancers such as leukaemia and breast cancer have had an extra generation of funding resulting in a good body of research; the fight against brain tumours is playing catch-up.

Looking at spending on site-specific cancer research, it seems like brain tumours, with 3.2% of the pot, are already attracting extra funding. In reality, brain tumours are one of the most complex types of cancer – for a start, there are 120 types of brain tumour, and the brain as an organ operates differently from others – so discoveries in general cancer research or from work on other parts of the body are unlikely to benefit brain tumour research. As part of the entire cancer research budget (including general research), brain tumour accounts for only 1.4%.

Even for those who do survive, tumours can affect the functions of the brain and therefore affect a person's personality, preventing many people from working, driving and otherwise leading a normal life.

Around a quarter of cancers eventually spread to the brain. As people live longer, their risk of developing cancer increases; as cancer survival rates improve, their risk of developing secondary tumours in the brain increases. We can therefore expect increasing numbers of brain-tumour patients.

March is brain tumour awareness month, which culminates in Wear a Hat Day on March 28. Yesterday, MPs and peers marked the month with a Wear a Hat Day promotional event in parliament, organised by Brain Tumour Research, to focus the attention of policymakers on one of the least understood and most dangerous cancers. Patients and their families and supporters are already making noise about the issue and an e-petition on the government's website has so far attracted more than 17,000 signatures.

These research findings will help government and charities understand the burden of brain tumours and recognise the urgent need for more funding to find out more about the disease and develop better treatments. This way more and more people can be as lucky as Jack.