Brain tumours in the elderly.

The incidence of cerebral tumour in a geriatric department over a seven-year period was 0.9% of all admissions. The distribution of benign, malignant and secondary brain tumours and their histological types were similar to those of younger adults. Apart from small asymptomatic tumours found incidentally at post mortem, most symptomatic tumours were recognized from their characteristic history. In particular, only 0.4% of patients diagnosed as stroke were subsequently found to have a cerebral tumour.