Stark facts

1 min read

Exposing the financial impact of a brain tumour diagnosis

Brain  tumour  patients  lose  £14,783  per  year, more  than  double  the  £6,840  for  all  cancers. 

Our latest report, Exposing the financial impact of a brain tumour reveals for the first time the stark financial burden facing brain tumour patients.

Experiencing life-limiting physical and psychological symptoms, brain tumour patients face long visits to specialist hospitals, increased time at home, rising bills and costly home modifications.

What’s more: 

  • Brain tumour patients and their families face a £11,081 net loss of income
  • Brain tumour patients face additional costs of £3,702 per year
  • Brain tumour patients are on average £14,783 worse off per year, whereas for all cancers the average cost is £6,840 per year

Added to this, patients are required to surrender their driving licence, leading to a loss of independence. This is all while facing a terrifying uncertainty about what the future holds.

We are calling on the Government to mitigate the costs experienced by patients by:

1. Speeding us access to better treatments by stimulating further increases in the national investment for research into brain tumours to 30-35 million per year – to achieve parity with other cancers such as breast cancer and leukaemia

2. Giving back a quality of life to brain tumour patients and their families, offsetting a loss in income by giving them and their carers additional benefits. 

3. Providing easily accessible financial support to brain tumour patients while they are receiving treatment.

The information in this report represents the results of our online survey that we conducted during summer 2018 to learn more about the financial costs faced by brain tumour patients and their families.

We understand the power of statistics

That's why we leave no stone unturned when it comes to the latest analysis surrounding the devastating impact of brain tumours in the UK.

The shocking statistics speak for themselves:

  • Too many people are being faced with the devastating diagnosis each year – every two hours, someone is diagnosed with a brain tumour in England
  • In the UK, 16,000 people each year are diagnosed with a brain tumour
  • Only 12% of brain tumour patients survive beyond five years of their diagnosis, whereas over 70% of breast cancer and over 40% of leukaemia patients survive beyond five years
  • Brain tumours are the chief cause of cancer deaths in children and young people - in 2015, the number of children dying from cancer was 194, with brain tumours taking 67 young lives and leukaemia 46
  • Brain tumours continue to kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer

More statistics relating to brain tumours:

  • Brain tumours deaths are rising, representing 2.6% of all deaths from cancer
  • Brain tumours kill more children than leukaemia
  • Brain tumours kill more men under 70 than prostate cancer and more women under 35 than breast cancer
  • Incidences of and deaths from brain tumours are increasing
  • In 2015, £8,759 was spent on leukaemia research for each death, compared with only £1,858 for brain tumours
  • Brain tumour research represents just 1.37% of national spend on cancer
  • At the current rate of spending, it could take 100 years for brain cancer to catch up with developments in other diseases and find a cure
  • Awareness of the devastation caused by brain tumours is low - less than 10% of people in the UK know that brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer

This poster is a simple way to showcase and raise awareness of the shocking statistics around brain tumours.

National Funding Reports

Here at Brain Tumour Research, we shine a spotlight by publishing pioneering reports revealing the true statistics surrounding brain tumours in the UK.

Many of the facts, numbers and percentages used today by many parties, including other charities and official bodies, were first collated and publicised by us.

In October 2016, we published the latest in a series of landmark National  Reports, addressing the historic underfunding of brain tumour research. 

Every two hours, someone is diagnosed with a brain tumour in England. Our report reveals a shocking 'postcode lottery' of diagnosis around the country, with the North East and South East both witnessing a 40% rise in brain tumour cases between 2011 and 2014, closely followed by London at 35%.

Our report describes the stark inequalities in cancer research funding, which correlate tragically to poor survival rates for brain tumour patients. Fewer than 20% of brain tumour patients survive beyond five years of their diagnosis, whereas 86% of breast cancer and 51% of leukaemia patients survive beyond five years.

The low survival rate for brain tumour sufferers is largely attributable to these inequalities in research funding. For every leukaemia death, £8,759 is spent on research, compared with only £1,858 on brain tumour research.

The burden of increasing funds for research has fallen heavily on charities. In 2015, charities funded 86% of the national research into brain tumours. Our 2016 report reveals - for the first time - that the Government spend on brain tumour research represented just 0.52% of its total spend on cancer research in 2015. 

Previous Reports

Our first revelatory report was published in July 2009. Titled ‘The Inequality of Funding’, it was the first of its kind to reveal some of the hard facts surrounding brain tumours.

Our report in March 2013, titled ‘Brain Tumour Research - Funding Flows’, developed in partnership with New Philanthropy Capitol, revealed new insights into the chronic lack of funding coupled with an alarming increase in brain tumour mortality rates.

In July 2013, we published a ground-breaking report on the state of ‘National Research Funding for Brain Tumours’.

At the time, this was the most comprehensive analysis ever published by a national charity for brain tumours and was picked up by national and regional media as a major news story.

On the 1st of July 2014, we published a Report Update on National Research Funding, a companion volume to our 2013 report. This update presents stark new facts about brain tumours.

Back to Campaigning