PM Theresa May met Baroness Jowell last February
PM Theresa May met Baroness Jowell last February / Source: Number 10 (Creative Commons)

Research funding to tackle brain cancer will be increased to £40 million by the Government, Theresa May and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announced on the 13th of May.

The research fund will now has £65m, including £25 million from Cancer Research UK and £13 million of regular funding.

‘Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Research Mission’ will be set up to honour the former Labour cabinet minister, who died on Saturday (12 May). She had been fighting the disease for the last year.

The research mission will include a new Tessa Jowell global symposium.

The announcement includes the expansion of brain cancer diagnosis tests, “gold standard dye”, used to identify tumours, to all the country. They are currently only used in half of the English brain centres.

The government also committed to accelerate the use of adaptive trials, which “test different treatments at the same time and speed up the process”.

More than 9,000 brain tumour cases in England

There were 11,432 new cases of brain tumours in 2015 in the UK, 9,273 of them in England. Only 14% of the people affected survive the disease for 10 years or longer.

Brain tumours represent 3% of cancer cases.

They have increased by 34% since the early 1990’s, according to data obtained by Cancer Research UK.

Brain cancer treatment in Birmingham

There is a specialist multidisciplinary team for neuro-oncology based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, part of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital works together with the University of Birmingham to attend brain cancer among children. There is also a brain tumour research group developing functional imaging for the diagnosis, management and understanding of childhood brain tumours.

Advice and comfort can be found at the Birmingham brain tumour support group, which is open to patients, family, friends and careers who are affected by a brain tumour.

They hold meetings monthly at John Lewis, the next one this 17th May.

 

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