Brain tumour research is significantly under-funded, a cancer charity said today.

Brain tumour research is significantly under-funded, a cancer charity said today.

Brain Tumour Research described brain tumours as the "forgotten cancer" - despite an estimated 16,000 people in the UK being diagnosed with some form of the disease each year.

More men under the age of 45 and women under the age of 35 die from a brain tumour than any other cancer, according to the charity.

But, it argues, funding for research into the disease significantly lags behind that for other cancers.

In its new report, Brain Tumours: the Forgotten Cancer, the charity said: "Major questions have arisen over the low levels of funding that the government gives to brain tumour research."

In 2007-08, UK Government funding for brain tumour research channelled through the Medical Research Council (MRC) amounted to £970,000, according to figures it announced in January.

But the report said: "Leading brain tumour researchers were surprised with these figures as they felt that the MRC expenditure was even less than the £970,000 quoted.

"On further investigationthe House of Lords Library staff quoted officials from the MRC with very different figures This information suggests that MRC expenditure for brain tumours in 2007-8 was about £412,000."

In the same period, research related to leukaemia received £14m from the MRC, according to the government figures cited in the report A Department of Health spokesman said: "The government invests more in cancer research than in any other area of health."