Brief Descriptive Epidemiology of Primary Malignant Brain Tumors from North-East India

Abstract

Brain tumors are a mixed group of neoplasms that originate from the intracranial tissues and the meningeswith degrees of malignancy varying greatly from benign to aggressive. Not much is known about the epidemiologyof primary malignant brain tumors (PMBTs) in our population in North-East India. In this analysis, an attemptwas made to identify the age groups, gender distribution, topography and different histological types of PMBTwith data from a hospital cancer registry. A total of 231 cases of PMBT were identified and included for thepresent analysis. Our analysis has shown that most of PMBT occur at 20-60 years of age, with a male to femaleratio of 2.3:1. Some 70.5% of cases occurred in cerebral lobes except for the occipital lobe, and astrocytictumors were the most common broad histological type. In our population the prevalence of PMBT is 1% of allcancers, mostly affecting young and middle aged patients. As brain tumors are rare, so case-control analyticepidemiological studies will be required to establish the risk factors prevalent in our population.