health

About 360,000 persons in the United States are living with a primary
brain tumor as of 2008, according to the National Institutes of Health,
with about 44,000 new cases of primary tumors reported each year. Primary
brain tumors account for about 2.5 percent of cancer deaths in the
United States each year—about 13,000 adults and children. About
100,000 Americans die each year of metastatic brain tumors.
Brain tumors are the most common type of solid tumor in children,
and the second most common type of cancer in those below age fifteen.
Between 15 and 25 percent of all cancers in children are brain tumors. The
most common type of brain tumor in children is called a medullablastoma,
a highly malignant cancer that develops in the cerebellum (the part of the
brain just above the brain stem). This type of tumor is rare in adults.
Most types of brain tumors are equally common in men and women;
however, meningiomas occur slightly more often in women than in men.
Medulloblastomas are more common in boys than in girls. And although
most brain tumors are more common in Caucasians, meningiomas are
more common in African Americans than in members of other races.

Risk factors for brain tumors include:

• Age. Most brain tumors, whether benign or malignant, occur in
  adults over age forty-five. Brain tumors in children are rare within
  the first year of life; they occur most often in children between five
  and eight years of age.
• Exposure to nuclear radiation or radiation therapy for another type
  of cancer.
• Family history of brain tumors.
• Exposure to certain chemicals.