Children are dying and being disabled because doctors in Britain take three times longer to diagnose a paediatric brain tumour than in countries including Poland and Mexico.

There is a chronic lack of funding into the causes of brain cancer, even though it causes more deaths among the under-40s than any other type of cancer, campaigners say.

Every year 6,500 people have brain cancer diagnosed and 3,400 lose their lives to a brain tumour - but survival rates have barely improved over the past 30 years. Meanwhile, research into more high-profile cancers such as leukaemia and breast, colon and prostate cancer has received up to 20 times more investment and survival rates for those types have almost doubled in the same period.

About 40 per cent of all cancer deaths in children are from a brain tumour, with about 450 deaths in the under-16s each year. But a study commissioned by the Samantha Dickson Trust, the country's leading brain cancer charity, suggests that understanding and treatment of the disease fall far short of standards across the rest of Europe and North America.

The findings emerge as an important brain tumour research facility at University College London opens today. It is hoped that it will enable greater understanding of the disease.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham found that, for at least half of patients aged 1 month to 16 years, it took more than three months for a brain tumour to be diagnosed. This compared with about one month in other European and North American countries. David Walker, Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the university, said that although direct comparisons between countries were not always possible, “all the indications suggest that the UK is much slower in diagnosing brain tumours and that the burden of brain injury, mortality and disability is greater as a result”. Delays were occurring because GPs were reluctant to refer children for brain scans or through a lack of awareness of the early warning signs, he said.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is now considering new guidelines designed to improve GPs' awareness of symptoms of brain cancer. The college is expected to publish full guidance later this year.

Professor Walker added that children's symptoms could be different from those of adults but included severe headaches, vomiting and problems with movement or vision. “Parents must feel empowered to ask their doctors whether these symptoms might signify a brain tumour,” he said. “Brain-scanning machines are now available in every region of the UK and there is no excuse for doctors to not refer for a scan if they suspect a brain tumour. Catching tumours early is vital, and we should be performing at least as well as other comparative countries, if not better.”

A total of £393 million was spent on cancer research in 2006, of which £158 million was for specific cancer types.However, brain cancer received less than 2 per cent of this specific diseases budget, compared with just over 18 per cent for breast cancer and 16 per cent for leukaemia, both of which have greater prevalence but much higher survival rates.

While 75 per cent of all child cancer patients survive five years after diagnosis on average, only 65 per cent of children diagnosed with a high-grade brain tumour live for longer than this.

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