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The
trends in incidence of primary brain tumors in the population of Rochester,
Minnesota
Radhakrishnan
K, Mokri B, Parisi JE, O'Fallon WM, Sunku J, Kurland LT.
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905.
A number of reports have suggested an increasing incidence of primary brain
tumors, especially malignant astrocytomas, in the elderly population.
To investigate this issue, we analyzed the incidence and temporal trends of
primary intracranial neoplasms diagnosed in the population of Rochester,
Minnesota, over the 40 years between 1950 and 1990.
The incidence of symptomatic primary brain tumors (excluding patients diagnosed
incidentally at autopsy and by neuroimaging studies) increased from 9.5 per
100,000 population per year in 1950 to 1969 to 12.5 per 100,000 per year in 1970
to 1989; this change was not statistically significant (chi 2 trend, 1.89; p =
0.17).
While the incidence of pituitary adenomas increased significantly between the
two periods (chi 2 trend, 4.44; p = 0.04), the incidence trends of all gliomas,
malignant astrocytomas, and meningiomas showed no change among persons younger
than 65 years as well as those 65 years and older.
The number of patients incidentally found to have neoplasms by neuroimaging
studies increased in the recent 20-year period (chi 2 trend, 4.08; p = 0.04).
The average age- and sex-adjusted incidence rates per 100,000 per year during
the study period in the population of Rochester, Minnesota, for symptomatic
tumors were 5.0 for all gliomas, 3.3 for malignant astrocytomas, 2.0 for
meningiomas, and 2.4 for pituitary adenomas.
In conclusion, our data indicate that the reported increase in the incidence of
primary brain tumors is an artifact of improvement in diagnostic technology and
practice.
PMID: 7818260 [PubMed
- indexed for MEDLINE]
Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7818260&dopt=Abstract
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