Still More Fun with Fractions

Subtitle: Why we want physicians to be good at math and good at communicating.

From: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/07/ep.headache.brain.tumor/

Headaches usually aren't brain tumors

Of course, John's story is highly unusual; the vast majority of people who have headaches don't have brain tumors.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, a headache isn't cancer," says Dr. Gene Barnett, director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center, who treats adults at the Cleveland Clinic. "It's a stress headache or a migraine or sinusitis or something else benign."

For every 4,000 children who have headaches, one will have a brain tumor, according to Dr. Santiago Medina, co-director of the Department of Radiology's Division of Neuroradiology at Miami Children's Hospital.