title: Descriptive epidemiology of pediatric intracranial neoplasms in Egypt.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The characteristics of 451 Egyptian children (aged 0-14 years) with primary intracranial neoplasms were investigated for demographic, clinical, topographical and pathological features using the most recent 2007 Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective study performed in the Departments of Pediatric Neurosurgery of the Cairo University Hospitals from 2005 to 2008.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a slight male predominance (51.4%) observed in our study, and the most affected age group was 5-9 years old (43.2%). Most of the tumors were confined to a single compartment (infratentorial in 49.7%, supratentorial in 46.6%), while 3.8% of the tumors involved multiple compartments. The most common intracranial tumors were astrocytomas (35%), medulloblastomas (18.8%), craniopharyngiomas (11.3%) and ependymomas (10%). Pilocytic astrocytomas constituted 55% of all astrocytomas and 19.3% of all brain tumors, only slightly ahead of medulloblastomas. Less common types were primitive neuroectodermal tumors (2.7%), followed by meningiomas, germ cell tumors and choroid plexus tumors (2.4% each). According to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology Coding (ICD-O-4), benign, borderline and malignant tumors constituted 7.54, 36.14 and 56.32%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The characteristics of pediatric intracranial tumors in Egypt are generally similar to those reported in the literature, with only minor differences.
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, Kasr Al-Ainy Medical School, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. mohamedelgaidi@gmail.com
authors: Mohamed Ali
authors: MA
authors: El-Gaidi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002528:Cerebellar Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016545:Choroid Plexus Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D003397:Craniopharyngioma / Q000453:epidemiology; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D004806:Ependymoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000453:epidemiology; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D009837:Oligodendroglioma / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015173:Supratentorial Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology