Women ‘waiting longer than men for brain tumour diagnosis’, Report

Women are twice as likely as men to wait more than a year to be diagnosed with a brain tumour, according to a report.

The study, by the Brain Tumour Charity, found that 30 per cent of women had not been diagnosed 12 months after they first went to see a doctor with symptoms, compared with 15 per cent of men.

Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, which published the report, said: “It appears that women tend to face a more difficult path than men when they seek help for brain tumour symptoms. It is a worrying disparity and one that deserves further investigation.”

The report – Finding Myself in Your Hands: The Reality of Brain Tumour Treatment and Care – found nearly one in three brain tumour patients (31.3%) visited a doctor more than five times before the disease was diagnosed and nearly a quarter (24.2%) waited more than a year for diagnosis.

Patients who waited longer were mostly women, with almost one in three (30.2%) undiagnosed for more than a year compared to 15.2% of men. More than one in three women (36.5%) saw a doctor over five times before diagnosis compared to 23.4% of men.

Christopher B. Taub