MORE money must be ploughed into brain tumour research to boost survival rates, a new report suggests.

Only one per cent of UK spending on cancer research goes on investigating brain tumours, despite the fact that one in 50 people who die under the age of 60 do so from a brain tumour, the report says.

The report from charity Brain Tumour Research, says there is a large discrepancy between research for this and other cancers.

It said that 55% of the national spend on site-specific cancer benefits sufferers from four cancers; breast, bowel and prostate cancers, and leukaemia.

The authors said there have been remarkable improvements in treatments and survival rates for patients diagnosed with these four diseases.

Almost half of patients with them survive for five years after diagnosis compared to 19 per cent of people with brain cancer.

"We know funding into brain tumours needs to increase to around £30 million to £35m a year over a ten-year time-frame. At the current rate of spend, it could take 100 years to find a cure," said Brain Tumour Research chief executive Sue Farrington Smith.

"We are also calling on the Government to introduce a national register of site-specific cancer research to track all research grants and research work, ensuring transparency of funding arrangements."