Cancer charity warns of pharmaceutical firms holding up brain tumour research

Siobhain and Margaret McDonagh on holiday in Málaga, Spain. Margaret died from a glioblastoma tumour in June 2023. Photograph: Siobhain McDonagh

Potential new treatments for brain cancer are being hampered by the failure of pharmaceutical companies to provide the drugs required for research and by regulatory delays, a leading cancer charity has warned.

Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 in the UK than any other cancer, but research has been underfunded for years. About 12,000 are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour in the UK each year.