Descriptive epidemiology of pediatric intracranial neoplasms in Egypt.

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. PATIENTS AND 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. CONCLUSION The characteristics of pediatric intracranial tumors in Egypt are generally similar to those reported in the literature, with only minor differences.