Dr Judith Kingston, paediatric oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital said they were now trying the treatment in other brain tumours.

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If there are any problems with the way we are treating brain tumours, we need to address them as rapidly as possible.

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However, none of the six groupings - which included acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, brain tumours and Hodgkin's disease - showed an increasing trend between levels of radiation and rate of disease.

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Meningiomas account for a third of primary brain tumours.

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Professor Jillian Birch, director of the Cancer Research UK's Paediatric and Familial Cancer Research Group in Manchester, said the results seemed to back the theory that some childhood brain tumours were linked to infection.

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And that would be enough to account for the fact that several of the single-country studies found that ten years' mobile use was associated with an increased risk of brain tumours on the side of the head that people said was exposed to their handsets.

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The mother of three from Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, was told the cancer had spread too far and she had secondary tumours in her brain.

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In rich countries, five men in every 200, 000, and twice as many women, develop tumours called meningiomas that affect the membranes surrounding the brain.

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