WASHINGTON, DC— U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) applauds the passage of a resolution he co-sponsored marking May 2010 as National Brain Tumor Awareness Month. The resolution was sponsored by Senator Susan Collins and passed the Senate earlier this week.
“There are 612,000 Americans living with a diagnosis of a brain tumor at any given time,” said Senator Casey. “I was particularly moved when I recently met 13 year-old Justin Friedlander. Justin was diagnosed with a brain tumor and has since sought to raise awareness by shooting 40,000 baskets, one for every person diagnosed with a brain tumor each year.”
The goal of the resolution is to raise awareness of brain tumors. Of the 612,000 American’s living with a brain tumor diagnosis, approximately 62,000 of them have primary brain tumors and 150,000 have metastatic brain tumors that are the result of cancer spreading from another part of the body to the brain. Brain tumors are the leading cause of death from solid tumors in children under the age of 20 and are the third leading cause of death from cancer in young adults between the ages of 20 and 39.
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