Home / Critical illness cover / - Benign Brain Tumour
Background information
Approximately 8,500 people in the UK suffer a Brain Haemorrhage each year, with 3 or 4 out of 10 patients being left with long-term problems.
Each year in the UK there are 500 new cases of primary brain tumour (where a tumour starts in the brain, rather than spreads to the brain from another location).
1 million people are treated in hospital for head injuries each year.
9 out of every 20 victims with severe head injury will not return to work.
In total, an estimated 3 million people in the UK are currently suffering from brain-related disorders.
(BASIC, 2002)
Definition
A non-malignant tumour in the brain resulting in permanent deficit to the neurological system. Tumours or lesions in the pituitary gland are not covered. Cover usually includes non-malignant tumours in the meninges that result in permanent deficit to the neurological system.
What does this mean?
Unlike cancer, which is a malignant tumour, benign tumours are localised and grow by expansion only. They therefore do not invade and destroy the surrounding tissue and do not spread to other parts of the body. Once surgically removed they tend not to recur. However, a benign brain tumour can still be very dangerous because it can put pressure on the brain and lead to possible damage, haemorrhages and ulceration. Deficit to the neurological system means muscle weakness or sensory loss. Surgery to cure the condition may not always be possible.
19 March 2008 17:13:05
Shorter courses of radiotherapy can benefit breast cancer patients, researchers have claimed.
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research found that a lower total dose of radiotherapy, delivered in fewer but larger treatments, was as effective as the international standard of a higher total dose delivered over a longer time period when treating women with early breast cancer.
The findings, which may affect life insurance policies, confirm long-held beliefs of cancer specialists in the UK who have been using shorter schedules for many years.
According to Cancer Research UK, 44,000 women are diagnosed with breast caner each year in the UK.
Professor Mike Richards, National Cancer Director, said: "We welcome these findings which show that women receiving radiotherapy for breast cancer can be effectively treated with fewer hospital visits. These results are good for patients and good for the NHS."
Nearly 4,500 women took part in the trails which were funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health.
Just under half the received the international standard radiotherapy delivering 25 treatments, treating five times per week over five weeks while the remainder received a lower total dose given in fewer, larger treatments over three or five weeks.
The research is published in the Lancet and Lancet Oncology.
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30 April 2008 17:15:44
Life insurance premiums may be affected by the results of a new study which claims binge eating and then dieting could increase the risk of sudden death and significantly reduce lifespan.
Scientists at the University of Glasgow, who used fish for their research, discovered that while a fluctuating diet has no effect on body size or reproduction rate, it could reduce lifespan by as much as 25 per cent.
The findings could have implications for young people who follow extreme diets while they are still growing, the scientists claim.
During the research, one group of stickleback fish was fed a consistent amount of food each day while another group was given the same amount of food but in a more erratic feeding pattern.
Reproduction processes carried on as normal in the second group but on average their lifespan was 25 per cent less than the fish in the first group.
The researchers claim the difference in lifespan was not a consequence of more rapid ageing but of an increase in the risk of sudden death.
Professor Neil Metcalfe said: "It seems that uneven growth, due to the fluctuation in the amount eaten per day, is responsible for the increase in the risk of sudden death.
"This is possibly because the body tissues are more likely to have imperfections due to growth spurts."
The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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10 August 2007 17:41:25
Preventative treatments may not improve the life prospects of the elderly, British experts have said.
Rather than averting death, drugs such as statins may simply change its cause, according to the report in today's British Medical Journal.
Senior lecturers from New Zealand and Devon and a London GP authored the report, which suggests that such treatments tend to convert one critical illness to another.
The report crystallises its argument with a rhetorical question: "By using preventive treatments to reduce the risk of a particular cause of death in elderly people, are we simply changing the cause of death rather than prolonging life?"
Later on, it provides a similarly neat summary: "Our bodies have a finite functional life and age is a fundamental cause of disease."
Statins are fundamental to the government drive to cut rates of heart disease by 40 per cent by 2010.
However, the researchers cast doubt on their effectiveness, citing cited a trial of one statin, pravastatin, on elderly people.
While there was a small decrease in deaths due to heart disease, the total number of deceased remained the same - rates of cancer diagnosis were higher among the treatment group.
