You may reproduce the information in this chapter providing source credit is given to the American Brain Tumor Association. It is expected that over 180,000 brain tumors will be diagnosed in the United States during 2001.
Primary tumors are tumors that begin in the brain and tend to stay in the brain.
Metastatic brain tumors begin as a cancer elsewhere in the body and spread, or metastasize, to the brain. In the United States, approximately 2200 children younger than age 20 are diagnosed annually with brain tumors. 1 Brain tumors are the most common of the solid tumors in children, and the second most frequent malignancy of childhood. Brain cancer incidence appears to be leveling off in nearly every age group, except for those 85 years and older for whom use of scanning techniques is still increasing. This updates previously published reports of increasing brain cancer incidence.