Our appeal for 2006-07 for Brain Tumour research has now closed.

Click here to see how much money we've raised. If you would still like to support research into brain tumours at the Institute of Neurology, you can still do so by clicking here.

The first Internation Brain Tumour Awareness Week is being organised by the IBTA from 21-27 October. .

What is a brain tumour?

It is impossible to be precise in answering this question as there are over 120 different types of brain tumour, but like all cancers, they are caused by malignancy in specific cells in particular parts of the brain.

As yet, we do not know why they occur. Neither do we know why some tumours are benign and others malignant. Smoking is implicated as a cause of lung cancer, but no risk factors have yet been identified as contributing to the development of a brain tumour. Therefore nothing can be done to adjust one's lifestyle to reduce the risk of developing this type of cancer.

Every year though, 16,000 people are diagnosed as having a brain tumour. 40% of these are primary tumours i.e. tumours that start in the brain. But 20% of all cancer patients go on to develop a secondary tumour in the brain. Brain tumours are the second most common cause of cancer mortality.

Brain tumours also hit children particularly hard. They are the most common solid tumour in children. Of those children diagnosed with a brain tumour only 20% survive 5 years beyond diagnosis - a higher mortality rate than that of meningitis.

Brain tumour research in this country is mainly funded by charities like the Brain Research Trust. The BRT currently supports several projects at the Institute of Neurology. One of these is a pilot study entitled: Advanced MRI techniques in the evaluation of Low-Grade Glioma proposes to advance the management of untreated adult low-grade gliomas.

As the UK's leading neurological centre for MRI scanning, Queen Square is ideally suited to advance this area of research. Dr Jeremy Rees, the neurologist responsible for this project, has recruited 63 patients from his clinic at the National Hospital for Neurology and is scanning their tumours non-invasively using the most advanced MR imaging techniques.

Most brain tumours do not respond well to radiation or chemotherapy. When there is more understanding why these tumours behave the way they do, better treatments can be devised. It should be stressed that this is an area where there has been little research to date anywhere in the world.

Each patient scan costs £300 in MRI scanner time and each patient scan costs £50 per hour in a radiographer's time.

Brain tumours are perhaps the most feared of all cancers because they strike at the control centres of their victims' lives.

Over the last four years the Brain Research Trust funded almost £600,000 of research into Brain Tumours at Queen Square. Although a great achievement, we desperately need more.

If you would like to help fund vital research please click here.