Brain tumors are one of the most frighening forms of cancer as they damage the soft sponge, packed inside the skull, that controls our lives. But there is glimmer of hope from a radical new treatment which doubles survival time and may increase the survival rate. In the new procedure, called interstitial chemotherapy, six to eight biodegradable disc shaped wafers, soaked with the anti-tumor drug carmustine, are placed in the affected area of the brain. This is done during the surgery, after the accessible part of the tumor has been removed. The drug is slowly released from the discs - each just 14mm in diameter and 1mm thick - over several weeks. The wafers were developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.