'Hidden' Brain Abnormalities Common

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Dr. Patrick Kelly, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at NYU School of Medicine in New York, agrees. He adds that he hopes low-cost screening will one day become routine.

"I firmly believe that when brain tumors finally become symptomatic, many are incurable," said Kelly, who has operated on 7,000 brain tumors, many of which were the deadliest type: glioblastoma multiforme.

He said it is particularly important to detect such tumors early.

"It is easier and safer to deal with a small low-grade tumor than a big one that has evolved into a malignant and incurable lesion," he said.

But Dr. Clifford Saper, chairman of the department of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, believes that the brain abnormalities of most of the individuals in the study could have initially been selected by a much less expensive screening method -- a 10-minute questionnaire about neurological symptoms -- instead of a $1,000 one-hour test.

"Most of the things that were picked up are things that probably would not require treatment until they became symptomatic," he added.

Knowledge May Be Dangerous

Other neurologists and neurosurgeons say they are concerned that this information may be dangerous, as it could lead to unnecessary high-risk treatments or instill undue fear.

"Detecting these lesions could lead to more invasive diagnostic procedures, such as brain biopsies, which do also carry a significant risk of morbidity and mortality," said Dr. Roger Härtl, assistant professor of neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Saper agrees. "Every anxious patient in the United States will want a useless MRI scan next week.

"This can contribute more to medical cost, and little to medical care or patient health, but it will scare the heck out of a lot of people and cause a lot of needless worry and testing."

Brain experts also question whether the findings in a white middle class suburb in the Netherlands can be applied to the diverse ethnic population of the United States.