Family history of brain tumours increases the risk

New research has found that people with a family history of cancerous brain tumours appear to have higher risk of developing the same kind of tumours.

The research by scientists in the U.S. looked at the medical records of 1,401 people from Utah with primary brain tumours along with information on their family medical history which spanned at least three generations.

The study participants had at least one of two types of tumours: glioblastomas or astrocytomas.

Glioblastomas are cancerous, fast growing and deadly - astrocytomas are tumours in the brain or spinal cord which are less aggressive.

The researchers found, compared to people with no such family history, those whose immediate relatives suffered from glioblastomas had twice the risk of contracting the same kind of brain cancer and those with immediate relatives who had astrocytomas were nearly four times more likely to develop the same kind of tumour.

Study author Dr. Deborah Blumenthal from the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, and colleagues at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, say they hope such studies will eventually help identify genes that may be responsible for these types of brain tumours.

Dr. Blumenthal says an estimated 20,500 cases of new primary brain tumours were diagnosed in the United States in 2005, half of which were gliomas, or cancerous brain tumors and she says people with a family history of brain tumors should make their doctor aware of this and tell them about any other risk factors.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Utah Department of Health, the University of Utah and the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute and is published in the current issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.