title: Epidemiology of nervous system tumors in children: a survey of 1,485 cases in Beijing Tiantan Hospital from 2001 to 2005.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of the present retrospective study was to describe the epidemiology of nervous system tumors in children based on the clinical data obtained from a neurosurgical center in Beijing.
  
  
  METHODS
  During a 5-year period, from January 2001 to December 2005, 1,485 primary brain and spinal tumors in children up to 17 years of age were diagnosed histopathologically according to the World Health Organization 2000 nervous system tumor classification. The sex predilection, tumor location, and histological grade in relation to age were investigated, and the epidemiological characteristics of the 5 most common brain tumors are discussed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 1,485 cases evaluated, brain and spinal tumors comprised 92.3% (1,371) and 7.7% (114), respectively, with a predominance of low-grade tumors (65.1 and 78.9% for brain and spinal cord, respectively). For all tumors, the overall sex ratio (male to female) was 1.6:1. 61.9% of the brain tumors were supratentorial, whereas an infratentorial location was slightly more common in the 872 brain tumors of neuroepithelial tissue (53.7%). The 5 most common brain tumors were astrocytic tumors (30.5%), craniopharyngiomas (18.4%), medulloblastomas (14.6%), germ cell tumors (GCTs, 7.9%) and ependymal tumors (5.6%). The highest preponderance of boys was observed in GCTs followed by medulloblastomas. The most common types of spinal tumors were ependymal tumors (19.3%), neurilemmomas (16.7%) and astrocytomas (14.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on a large hospital series of pediatric patients, the present survey revealed the histopathological diversity of childhood neurological neoplasms, and provides a reliable profile of the epidemiology of nervous system tumors in children in a developing country.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. dabiao@yeah.net
authors.forename: Dabiao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yuqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shiqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003625:Data Collection / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006786:Hospitals, Urban / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009423:Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000639:trends; D012189:Retrospective Studies