New drive to cut childhood brain tumour diagnosis times

CBTRC Olivia
16 Jan 2017 15:31:26.057

PA10/17

A new campaign to reduce the time it takes to diagnose brain tumours in children and young people has being launched today. 

HeadSmart is a UK-wide partnership between the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre at The University of Nottingham, The Brain Tumour Charity and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. It has already helped to cut the average diagnosis time from more than 13 weeks to 6.5 weeks but the aim is to reduce this time further. 

Families and young people affected by childhood brain tumours are backing the new campaign to raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms. They will be joining doctors and brain cancer researchers at a formal launch today (16 January 2017) at the Royal College of General Practitioners in London. 

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Among those due to attend are three of The Brain Tumour Charity’s Young Ambassadors – Harry Graham, Emma Barnett and Tom Peddie - all of whom were diagnosed with a brain tumour at a young age and now support HeadSmart. Sacha Langton-Gilks, who lost her son to a late-diagnosed brain tumour in 2012 and is now HeadSmart’s lead community champion, will also be there.

The campaign includes pocket-sized symptoms cards and a website, giving information on the warning signs of a brain tumour in babies, children and teenagers. These include vomiting, balance problems and unusual eye movements.

HeadSmart is based on research into the most commonly-presented symptoms of childhood brain tumours, carried out by the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre.

After a review of all the evidence, newly-added symptoms in the relaunched campaign include increasing head circumference in under-fives and loss of vision across all age groups. The new campaign also features an icon, nicknamed Sam. Each of the 10 key childhood brain tumour symptoms is represented by Sam in a different, easily-recognisable form.

Professor David Walker from the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre said: “The HeadSmart campaign has been tremendously successful so far in reducing diagnosis times and raising awareness among families and their GPs but there is still room for improvement. Ten years ago, the time between first onset of symptoms and diagnosis of a brain tumour was on average 14 weeks. It’s now around 6.5 weeks but an even shorter interval would significantly improve the prognosis for children who develop the disease and reduce the side effects of treatment.

“There is also a significant difference in diagnosis times between age groups. Half the children under 5 are diagnosed within 3.9 weeks after symptom onset, for children aged 5 – 11 years it is 6.6 weeks and for teenagers it rises to 9.9 weeks so this discrepancy urgently needs addressing.

“Our relaunch of the HeadSmart campaign uses new evidence, justifying a new approach to healthcare professionals, young people and parents of younger children. With this revised approach we aim to further accelerate the speed of diagnosis by helping doctors, young people and their families to work better together in selecting those who need a brain scan to diagnose or exclude a brain tumour."

Hayley Epps, campaign manager for The Brain Tumour Charity, said: Brain tumours kill more children in the UK than any other type of cancer. HeadSmart has two aims: to save lives and reduce long-term disability by bringing down diagnosis times. Relaunching the campaign will help us to achieve those goals by alerting more healthcare professionals, parents and young people to the signs and symptoms of the disease.”

Case studies and spokespeople from The University of Nottingham and The Brain Tumour Charity are available on request.

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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK for research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.

Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news…

Story credits

More information is available from Professor David Walker Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre on +44 (0)115 823 0632 david.walker@nottingham.ac.uk or Polly Newton on 01252 418191 polly.newton@thebraintumourcharity.org

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