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Brain and spinal cord cancers Cancer can start in the cells of the brain or spinal cord. The brain controls the body by sending electrical messages along nerve fibres. The fibres run out of the brain and join together to make the spinal cord, which also takes messages from the body to the brain. Together, the brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system. The brain is made up of billions of nerve cells called neurones. It also contains special connective tissue cells called glial cells that support the nerve cells. The most common type of brain tumour develops from glial cells and is called glioma. Some tumours that start in the brain or spinal cord are non cancerous (benign) and grow very slowly but others are cancerous and are more likely to grow and spread.
A caregiver plays an important Brain and spinal cord tumours make up about 1 out of 100 cases of cancer in the Cameroon (3%).