The annual incidence of adult primary brain tumour is 0.01%, of which 72% of patients will present above the age of 50 years. Although secondary brain tumours are more common than primary tumours, they are rare as the first manifestation of cancer. Although patients with a brain tumour can present with a number of symptoms, headache is invariably a cause for concern for both patient and doctor; however, there is a wide discrepancy in GP access to neuroradiological investigation to exclude this possibility. When a patient presents to their GP with headache, the risk of a brain tumour is 0.09%. There is no consistent clinical pattern to the features of headache associated with tumour, but the majority will present with additional clinical features. Only 2-16% of primary tumours will present with isolated headache.
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