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QUICK BRAIN TUMOR FACTS

An estimated 700,000 Americans are living with a primary brain tumor​

  • Approximately 71% of all brain tumors are benign

  • Approximately 29% of all brain tumors are malignant

  • Approximately 58% of all brain tumors occur in females

  • Approximately 42% of all brain tumors occur in males

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An estimated 88,970 people will receive a primary brain tumor diagnosis in 2022

  • An estimated 63,040 will be non-malignant (benign)

  • Meningiomas are the most commonly occurring primary non-malignant brain tumors, accounting for 39% of all tumors and 54.5% of all non-malignant tumors

    • An estimated 25,930 will be malignant

      • Glioblastoma is the most commonly occurring primary malignant brain tumor, accounting for 14.3% of all tumors and 49.1% of all malignant tumors

  • The median age at diagnosis for a primary brain tumor is 61 years

  • Males have a 1 in 143 chance of developing brain cancer in their lifetime and a 1 in 188 chance of dying from brain cancer in their lifetime. For females, the chance of developing brain cancer is 1 in 186, with a 1 in 239 chance of dying from the disease

  • The average survival rate for all primary brain tumor patients is 75.7%

    • Survival rates vary by age and tumor type and generally decrease with age

    • For non-malignant brain tumor patients, the average five-year survival rate is 91.8%

    • For malignant brain tumor patients, the five-year relative survival rate following diagnosis is 35.6%

      • For the most common form of primary malignant brain tumors, glioblastoma, the five-year relative survival rate is only 6.8% and median survival is only 8 months

  • More than 18,200 people are estimated to lose their life because of a malignant brain tumor (brain cancer) in 2022

  • There are more than 100 distinct types of primary brain tumors, each with its own spectrum of presentations, treatments, and outcomes

 

 

CHILDREN:

  • 13,657 children are estimated to be living with a primary brain tumor in the U.S.

  • Approximately 4% of all brain tumors cases diagnosed each year occur in children ages 0-14

  • An estimated 4,170 new cases of childhood brain tumors are expected to be diagnosed in 2022

  • Brain tumors are the most common solid cancer in children ages 0-14 years

  • The five-year relative survival rate for all primary childhood brain tumors is 82.8%

    • For malignant tumors, the five-year survival rate is 74.8%

  • Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death among children ages 0-14 years

  • The most prevalent brain tumor types in children are:

    • Pilocytic astrocytoma (18.3%)

    • Glioma, malignant, NOS (14.8%)

    • Embryonal tumors (12.3%)

      • Medulloblastoma (67.7%)

      • AT/RT (17.1%)

      • PNET (8.5%)

  • Gliomas account for approximately 51% of tumors in this age group

 

For more information on brain tumors, please visit the National Brain Tumor Society's website at HERE

 

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[1] Chaturia Rouse, Haley Gittleman, Quinn T. Ostrom, Carol Kruchko, Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan, Years of potential life lost for brain and CNS tumors relative to other cancers in adults in the United States, 2010, Neuro-Oncology, Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2016, Pages 70–77, https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/nov249

[2] Workshop on Product Development for Central Nervous System Metastases

[3] J Natl Cancer Inst. 2011 Jan 19; 103(2): 117–128.

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