Anyone can be affected by brain tumours. Some children are born with tumours and they can occur at any age in life.
Benign (harmless) brain tumours stay in the part of the brain where they started and don’t spread into other areas.
Primary brain tumours start in the brain and have not spread from somewhere else in the body.
Malignant primary brain tumours are most likely to cause problems by spreading into the normal brain tissue around them and causing pressure and damage to the surrounding areas.
A secondary brain tumour is caused by cancer cells from a cancer elsewhere in the body spreading to the brain.
Patients diagnosed with a brain tumour will be able to discuss their tumour with a consultant.
This section provides details of brain tumour services for adult patients. Please follow the main menu link for information on children’s cancers.