Brain Tumors

Each year, more than 21,000 adults and 1,500 children are diagnosed with brain tumors – both non-malignant and primary (cancerous).  Brain tumors can be fatal unless caught early and treated with state-of-the-art treatment. 

Long term survival rates are as high as 95 percent for certain types of non-malignant tumors and 80 percent for some malignant tumors.

A brain tumor is an abnormal mass of tissue in which a group of unwanted cells grow and multiply uncontrollably. They can be:

• Benign
• Cancerous

They seem to be unregulated by the brain’s mechanisms that control normal cells.

The tumor growth takes up space within the skull, interfering with your normal brain activity.  It can

• shift the brain
• cause harm by increasing pressure on the brain
• push against the skull
• invade and damage nerves in healthy brain tissue

Brain tumors seldom spread to the rest of the body (metastasize) outside of the central nervous system, including the spinal cord.