I heard this news today and just felt so sad.  I hope that he is able to continue to do good work for the people of Boston and the US.  I did a quick search of famous people beside Tommy who have had brain tumors....I knew a few of them but was surprised about some others.  Bob Marley, Tug McGraw, Bobby Mercer, Wilma Rudolph, Lance Armstrong, Scott Hamilton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Each year approximately 190,000 people in the United States and 10,000 people in Canada will be diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor. Breakdown:

• An estimated 43,800 new cases of primary malignant and non-malignant tumors***
• An estimated 150,000 cases are brain metastases (this is an approximation as the number of metastatic brain tumors is estimated to be 20% - 40% of all cancers).

Brain tumor patients, including those with certain “benign” brain tumors, have poorer survival rates than breast cancer patients.

Metastatic brain tumors (cancer that spreads from other parts of the body to the brain) occur at some point in 10 to 15% of persons with cancer and are the most common type of brain tumor.

In the United States, the overall incidence of all primary brain tumors is more than 14 per 100,000 people.***