title: Childhood tumors of the brain: demographic pattern over a ten-year period in the Kashmir Valley.
abstract: Brain tumors in children represent the second most frequent tumors in this age group after hematologic malignancies. We highlight the demographic pattern after retrospective analysis of brain tumors in children from geographically and ethnically distinct Kashmir Valley managed in our center between 2000 and 2009. We had a total of 248 pediatric patients with brain tumors. The parameters analyzed were age, gender, location of tumors and histopathological subtypes as well as WHO grade of tumor. We also did a comparison between the frequencies of common varieties of tumor in the first and second 5-year periods. We found that 111 tumors (44.75%) were supratentorial, and 137 (55.25%) were infratentorial. The male-to-female ratio was 1.4:1. The proportions of low-grade and high-grade tumors were 60 and 40%, respectively. The most common tumor in our series was astrocytoma. The most common tumors in the supratentorial and infratentorial compartments were craniopharyngioma and medulloblastoma, respectively. Our experience reflects a different demographic profile of pediatric brain tumors as compared with other regions of the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, India. nayilkhursh@gmail.com
authors.forename: Khursheed
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nayil
authors.forename: Rumana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Makhdoomi
authors.forename: Altaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramzan
authors.forename: Sheikh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zahoor
authors.forename: Mohsin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rasool
authors.forename: Abrar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wani
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dhar
authors.forename: Basharat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mubeen
authors.forename: Sarbjit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Rashid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhat
authors.forename: Altaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kirmani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010154:Pakistan / Q000208:ethnology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors