May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month

Please join with the AACR to find better ways to prevent and treat brain cancer

Doctors will diagnose cancers of the brain or central nervous system in about 24,820 people in the United States in 2025, according to the National Cancer Institute. These cancers make up a portion of the more than 94,000 brain tumors (including benign tumors) that occur each year in this country. 

There are many types of brain and spinal cord tumors. The tumors result from the abnormal growth of cells and may be either benign or malignant. Benign brain and spinal cord tumors grow and press on nearby areas of the brain. Normally, they rarely spread into other tissues.

Malignant brain and spinal cord tumors are likely to grow quickly and spread into other brain tissue. 

Unfortunately, when a tumor grows into or presses on an area of the brain, it may stop that part of the brain from functioning normally. Both benign and malignant brain tumors produce signs and symptoms and need treatment.

Tumors that start in the brain are called primary brain tumors. Primary brain tumors may spread to other parts of the brain or to the spine. But they rarely spread to other parts of the body.

Metastatic brain tumors

Many tumors found in the brain actually started somewhere else in the body and spread to the brain. These are called metastatic brain tumors, and they are more common than primary brain tumors. In fact, about half of metastatic brain tumors are from lung cancer. Even after these tumors spread to the brain, they are still called lung cancer, or wherever they originated.

To read more about how this happens, see “Treating Brain Metastases” in AACR’s Cancer Today magazine.

The National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program estimates that some 18,330 people in the U.S. will die from these cancers in 2025.

one person’s story

On the AACR’s blog, Cancer Research Catalyst, you can read the inspiring story of a 41-year-old man who has dealt with glioblastoma for the past seven years: Forging a Path as an Advocate for Glioblastoma Research

More on Brain Cancer Research

At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, researchers presented updates on the most promising treatments for brain cancer that could become available in the coming years. Read more about these presentations on Cancer Research Catalyst.

What the AACR Is Currently Doing in Brain Cancer Research

The AACR supports several researchers for their work in the field of brain cancers:  

  • 2023 AACR-AstraZeneca Career Development Award for Physician-Scientists, in Honor of José Baselga: Kristopher Bosse, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “Murine GPC2 CAR T cells to define mechanisms of immune escape.”
  • 2023 AACR-Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Medulloblastoma Research Fellowship: Jennifer C. Coleman, PhD, University of Cambridge, “Examining Life-or-Death Stress Responses in DEAD-box Helicase X-linked (DDX3X)-Mutated Medulloblastoma.”
  • 2023 AACR-Sontag Foundation Brain Cancer Research Fellowship: Zulekha A. Qadeer, PhD, University of California, San Francisco, “Targeting epigenetic drivers in group 3 medulloblastoma.”
  • 2023 AACR-StacheStrong Glioblastoma Research Fellowship: Raghavendra Vadla, PhD, University of California, San Diego, “Targeting Bromodomain Containing 2 Protein to Inhibit Mesenchymal Transition in Recurrent Glioblastoma”

for more information

Please see our page on brain and spinal cord tumors, which includes information on potential treatments.