Franco DeMonte, Mark R. Gilbert,
Anita Mahajan, and Ian E. McCutcheon
Editors

2007

Although the annual incidence of intrinsic tumors of the central nervous system (CNS)—about 17,000 to 20,000 in the United States—is much lower than that of more common cancers arising in the lung, breast, or other sites, CNS tumors are prominent in oncology for several reasons. First, they attack the very structure of our personhood and in so doing, create fear and functional deficits as profound as they are disturbing to patients and their families alike.