Former SIOPE Board Member David Walker, Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre at University of Nottingham, is the newly appointed President of the British Neuro-Oncology Society (BNOS).
In his first speech, he outlined his desire to focus on brain tumours in the young for the year ahead. The immense consequences of brain tumours in children – the commonest form of solid tumour in the young – are a danger to life and quality of life for sufferers and survivors: over 70% of children who develop a brain tumour now survive the disease with improved treatments, but many suffer varying degrees of damage to their quality of life, and around 60% of the survivors of brain tumours in the young are moderately or severely disabled as a result.
In countering the difficulties faced by children with brain tumours, Professor Walker points to the success of sustained international efforts - including the advocacy activity of SIOPE - to conduct trials of new therapies in the children over the past 3 decades, as well as the recent launch of the UKHeadsmart campaign to raise awareness of the need for speed in diagnosing a tumour.
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