WORLD BRAIN TUMOUR STATISTICS

BACKGROUND: When a person is diagnosed with a brain tumour they and their family are often curious to know how many other people are similarly afflicted. To obtain an estimate of the worldwide incidence of brain tumours the International Brain Tumour Alliance (IBTA) approached the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) in late 2006 and sought its help to identify the relevant statistics. In turn, the CBTRUS involved its academic researchers in a study of the subject. An international teleconference and two meetings took place in Chicago between IBTA and CBTRUS officials during 2007 in which the research study was further refined and discussed.

As a starting point CBTRUS studied the GLOBCAN 2002 database to isolate statistics relating to CNS tumours, it being the most recently available collection of world figures.

The IBTA then asked CBTRUS to undertake forward projections to identify a more contemporary estimate and they estimated a figure of 200,697 for 2005 (see below). This is the basis for the figure of at least 200,000 primary, malignant brain tumours.

The IBTA also asked CBTRUS to estimate the worldwide number of primary non-malignant brain tumours and they have come up with an estimate of 187,884. More detail about that aspect of the study project will be made public by CBTRUS in late 2007.

We were also curious to know the statistics for metastatic brain tumours (i.e. brain tumours that arise from a cancer elsewhere in the body) but CBTRUS and its researchers advised that it was “unlikely that modeling templates are available”.

We hope that the work undertaken by CBTRUS on behalf of the IBTA will constitute a contribution to the overall knowledge about brain tumours and will help inform researchers and the general community.

Denis Strangman Chair

Kathy Oliver Secretary

21 October 2007

Incidence Rates and Counts for the World-wide Incidence of Primary Malignant Brain, Nervous System Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2002.

	Rate*			Count
	Overall	Male	Female	Overall	Male	Female
World, Malignant	na	3.7	2.6	189,582	108,277	81,305
*Per 100,000 and age-standardized to the World standard. na: not available to compute in GLOBOCAN 2002 Note: Incidence may be underestimated in the less developed countries. The World standard has a different age distribution and structure than the US 2000, European, and other standard populations. Thus, comparison of these rates to rates computed using other standard populations for age-adjustment is not recommended. “Brain, nervous system” is defined by International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICDO) topography codes C70-C72, which includes the brain, meninges, spinal cord, cranial nerves and other parts of the nervous system. It does not include brain lymphomas or tumors of the pituitary gland, craniopharyngeal duct, and pineal gland. World rates have been estimated as the population-weighted average of: Eastern Africa, Middle Africa, Northern Africa, Southern Africa, Western Africa, Caribbean, Central America, South America, Northern America, Eastern Asia, South-Eastern Asia, South-Central Asia, Western Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia Reference: J. Ferlay, F. Bray, P. Pisani and D.M. Parkin. GLOBOCAN 2002 Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide IARC CancerBase No. 5, version 2.0 IARCPress, Lyon, 2004.

Incidence Rates for the World-wide and Regional Incidence of Primary Malignant Brain, Nervous System Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2002

Rates are per 100,000

Incidence: ASR (World), All ages	Brain, nervous system-Male	Brain, nervous system-Female
World	3.7	2.6
More developed countries	5.8	4.1
Less developed countries	3.0	2.1
Northern America	6.5	4.5
Africa	1.4	1.2
Asia	3.0	2.1
Central and South America, Caribbean	4.5	3.4
Europe	6.1	4.3
Australia/New Zealand and Pacific	6.0	3.9

World Number of Cases, Deaths and Prevalence Counts for Primary Malignant Brain, Nervous System Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2002.

Brain, nervous system-Both sexes (All ages)	Cases	Deaths	1-year prev. cases	3-year prev. cases	5-year prev. cases
World	189582	141723	88462	199361	276564
More developed countries	74549	56926	38078	85211	116229
Less developed countries	114735	84578	50384	114150	160335
Eastern Africa	3087	2444	1493	3343	4618
Middle Africa	178	132	29	67	87
Northern Africa	2528	2057	1183	2607	3558
Southern Africa	582	475	268	592	812
Western Africa	1828	1447	941	2143	2966
Caribbean	1124	911	479	1050	1429
Central America	3595	2413	1616	3556	4855
South America	14310	10836	6493	14142	19151
Northern America	21126	14943	12593	28231	38251
Eastern Asia	50585	33027	20883	49883	73443
South-Eastern Asia	6836	5381	3170	7096	9773
South Central Asia	27089	21899	12824	28177	38276
Western Asia	6584	5322	3068	6785	9263
Eastern Europe	15196	14049	7365	16386	22343
Northern Europe	7171	5510	3036	6801	9318
Southern Europe	12063	8528	5543	11921	15907
Western Europe	13955	10974	6812	14997	20234
Australia/New Zealand	1661	1309	636	1509	2167

Brain, nervous system-Male (All ages)	Cases	Deaths	1-year prev. cases	3-year prev. cases	5-year prev. cases
World	108277	80084	50736	113995	157689
More developed countries	41361	31469	21452	47614	64450
Less developed countries	66747	48494	29284	66381	93239
Eastern Africa	1555	1242	748	1668	2308
Middle Africa	85	63	17	38	48
Northern Africa	1509	1228	699	1538	2099
Southern Africa	323	261	150	335	460
Western Africa	812	634	459	1062	1482
Caribbean	629	512	270	597	810
Central America	2054	1350	927	2044	2794
South America	7863	5821	3631	7930	10744
Northern America	11908	8339	7228	16199	21902
Eastern Asia	29555	18721	12167	29103	42864
South-Eastern Asia	3933	3108	1805	4015	5503
South Central Asia	16798	13605	7922	17391	23618
Western Asia	3638	2940	1654	3640	4956
Eastern Europe	8150	7535	3972	8567	11393
Northern Europe	4002	3134	1715	3776	5116
Southern Europe	6578	4717	3001	6430	8553
Western Europe	7867	6067	3954	8671	11616
Australia/New Zealand	970	764	391	929	1335

Brain, nervous system-Female (All ages)	Cases	Deaths	1-year prev. cases	3-year prev. cases	5-year prev. cases
World	81305	61639	37726	85366	118875