The incidence of brain tumours is 5-15 per 100,000 per year and they account for about 2% of deaths
- they represent an increasing source of mortality in both sexes, especially in the 70-74 age group - this trend cannot be explained entirely by the improved techniques for investigating intracranial disease.
Brain tumours may be histologically malignant but rarely metastasise outside the brain
- about 20% are secondary metastases - most commonly, lung then breast and kidney
- of the primaries, the majority are gliomas (43%), followed by meningiomas (10%), and pituitary adenomas (10%). Others are comparatively rare.
Their incidence shows two age peaks - in children, and in late middle age
- in children, astrocytomas and medulloblastomas are the dominant cerebral tumours whilst in adults, gliomas, meningiomas and metastases are the most common
- CNS tumours presenting in the young differ notably from those in older adults in terms of the cellular origins, pathological subtypes and anatomic site
- most common subtypes in young people are astrocytic tumours (50%) and embryonal tumours including medulloblastoma (25%)
- tumours of the central nervous system (CNS) are the second most common group of childhood cancers comprising a quarter of all malignancies in patients aged 0-14 years with approximately 350 children diagnosed each year in the UK
- CNS tumours also represent a major diagnostic group in teenagers and young adults aged 15-24 years with around 150 new cases per year diagnosed in the UK representing 10% of all cancers in this age range
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