title: Epidemiological study of primary intracranial tumors in childhood. A population-based survey in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.
abstract: Between 1989 and 1995, we diagnosed primary intracranial neoplasms in 79 children younger than 15 years. All of them belonged to a well-defined population residing in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Of the tumors, 64 (81.0%) were confirmed microscopically. The age-adjusted annual incidence rate was 34.3 cases per million child population. There was a marked difference in the incidence rate between boys (47.1) and girls (22.05). The age-specific annual incidence per million was 24.3 cases for the 0- to 4-year age group, 46.7 for the 4- to 9-year age group and 30.8 for the 10- to 14-year age group. The highest incidence rate was seen in 5- to 14-year-old boys (53.5), the lowest in 10- to 14-year-old girls (7.1). The most common tumors were astrocytomas (41.8%), with an incidence of 14.52 per million, followed by germ cell tumors (15.1%), with an incidence of 6.24 per million, craniopharyngiomas (15.1%), incidence 5.25 per million, ependymomas (6.3%), incidence 2.19 per million, and medulloblastomas (6.2%), incidence 2.19 per million. The distribution of tumor types varied with patient age at the time of diagnosis. Although no germ cell tumors were encountered in the 0- to 4-year age group, in the 10- to 14-year age group, they comprised about one third of all tumors. In contrast, white craniopharyngiomas were rare in the 10- to 14-year age group, they made up more than 22% in the 0- to 4-year age group. In this survey of Japanese children, we found a higher incidence of primary intracranial tumors, especially germ cell tumors and craniopharyngiomas, and a lower incidence of medulloblastomas compared to the incidence reported for Western countries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Kumamoto University Medical School, Japan. jkuratsu@kaiju.medic.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuratsu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ushio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002528:Cerebellar Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003397:Craniopharyngioma / Q000453:epidemiology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000453:epidemiology; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012737:Sex Factors