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Are pediatric brain tumors on the rise in the USA? Significant incidence and survival findings from the SEER database analysis

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Abstract

Introduction

Central nervous system tumors are the second most common form of cancer in children between the ages of 1 and 19 years. We aimed to provide the most recent data on the incidence and survival of these tumors in the USA and to assess the literature.

Methods

Frequency, rates, and survival sessions were calculated using the November 2008 submission for the US Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program. Data were collected and analyzed for children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years with primary brain tumors.

Results

We found that the incidence rate of all pediatric brain tumors has been on a gradual but steady increase from 1973 to 2008 (p < 0.001). The average annual increase was 1.37 %. Our survival analysis of the individual tumors revealed that the 5-year overall survival for children diagnosed between 1974 and 1978 with medulloblastoma was 43.7 %. However, this increased to 62.8 % for children diagnosed between 1999 and 2003. A similar survival trend was also observed when all the other pediatric brain cancer histologies were collectively analyzed (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

From our study, we can conclude that contrary to previous reports indicating a plateau in the incidence rates of pediatric brain tumors since the mid-1980s, there has been an increase from 1973 to 2008. Potential causes include environmental carcinogens, but more research is needed to investigate the factors behind this sustained rise in incidence over the years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, St. George’s University, St. George’s, Grenada

    Swetal Patel, Amit Bhatnagar, Christopher Wear, Stephen Osiro, Abigail Gabriel, David Kimball, Alana John & Marios Loukas

  2. Department of Medicine, Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, Brooklyn, NY, 11206, USA

    Stephen Osiro

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Alana John

  4. Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, St. George’s, Grenada

    Paul J. Fields

  5. Pediatric Neurosurgery, Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, AL, USA

    R. Shane Tubbs

  6. Department of Anatomy, Medical School, University of Varmia and Mazuria, Olsztyn, Poland

    Marios Loukas

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  1. Swetal Patel
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  2. Amit Bhatnagar
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Correspondence to Marios Loukas.

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Novelty and impact

There has been a steady increase in the incidence of brain tumors in the USA among children of all ages from 1973 to 2008 contrary to previous reports indicating that it had plateaued in the mid-1980s. Environmental carcinogens could be a possible cause, but further research is needed to investigate the factors behind this sustained increase over the years.

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Patel, S., Bhatnagar, A., Wear, C. et al. Are pediatric brain tumors on the rise in the USA? Significant incidence and survival findings from the SEER database analysis. Childs Nerv Syst 30, 147–154 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-013-2307-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-013-2307-1

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