Incidence of brain tumors is rising. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Over the last 20 years about 25% more of brain tumors are diagnosed than were diagnosed 25 years ago. Statistics is different depending on sources. Yes, yes. What could be the reason for increase in a rate of brain tumors? Dr. Sebastian Brandner, MD. It's also important to highlight this. Brain tumors is an area in cancer that remains quite challenging. Relatively fewer patients survive brain tumors. Brain tumors have lower long-term survival. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. This is compared with many other cancers. Other cancers had a lot of progress in survival recently. I should say this. I haven't seen that specific statistics. First, it will be important to see whether it is corrected for age. 30 - 40 years ago patients didn't reach the age at which now a lot more patients are actually in good health. They could become symptomatic with a seizure. Dr. Sebastian Brandner, MD. They go to the doctor. The threshold for computer tomography or an MRI scan goes down and down. So doing MRI scan after seeing a seizure is something that's very often already done. The likelihood of discovering a brain tumor is probably higher now. Without having seen the statistics, I cannot say. Whether it was age-adjusted and what the brain tumor statistics exactly tells, I don’t know. I would be surprised if the brain cancer incidence is actually increased. It should be corrected for all sorts of detection limits. But as I say, I'm not aware of the statistics. My initial hunch would be that in 1970s or 1980s, the methodologies to detect a brain tumor changed. The likelihood of undergoing a CT scan or MRI scan has increased. MRI scans were only introduced in the early 1990s. This could contribute to the high brain tumor detection rate. Therefore, it obviously increases the incidence of brain tumors. So probably we have better diagnostics of brain tumors. That would be my guess. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. I have not seen the statistics that you quoted here. Dr. Sebastian Brandner, MD. I better don't comment on what the reason for the increase in brain tumor occurrence might be. Brain tumors are diagnosed about 25% more today. This is compared with 25 years ago. What could explain a rise in frequency of brain tumor diagnoses? Discussion with leading brain tumor expert.