Incidence Rates of the Primary Brain Tumours in Georgia – a Prospective Population-Based Study

To determine the incidence rate and evaluate other basic epidemiologic data of primary brain tumours in Georgia a population-based cohort study was performed between March 2009 and March 2011. Active case ascertainment was used to identify brain tumour cases by searching neuroradiology scan reports and medical records from all participating medical institutions, covering almost 100% of the neurooncology patients in the country. A total of 980 new cases were identified during the two-year period. For a population of almost 4.5 million, the overall annual incidence rate was 10.62 per 100,000 person-years, age-standardized to the year 2000 US population (ASR). Non-malignant tumours constituted about 65.5% of all tumours. Males accounted for 44% and females for 56% of the cases. Among classified tumours age-standardized incidence rates by histology were highest for meningiomas (2.65/100,000), pituitary adenoma (1.23/100,000) and glioblastomas (0.51/100,000). ASR were higher among females than males for all primary brain tumours (10.35 vs. 9.48/100,000) as well as for main histology groups except for neuroepithelial, lymphomas and germ cell tumours. The annual incidence rate of all primary brain tumours in Georgia, though comparable with some European registry data, is low in comparison with 2004-2005 Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) database, which may reflect variations in reporting and methodology. The higher percentage of unclassified tumours (37.8%) probably affects the discrepancies between our and CBTRUS findings. However, the most frequently reported tumour was meningioma with a significant predominance in females, which is consistent with CBTRUS data. © 2013 Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci.