Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Herein we examine the epidemiology and outcomes of the entire spectrum of intracranial tumors in the contemporary era.
METHODS
Adult patients (≥20yo) presenting between 2010–2015 where the first evidence of cancer involves an intracranial tumor were queried from the National Cancer Database, which comprises >70% of cancers newly-diagnosed in the U.S. Tumor types were classified by WHO2016 ICD-O3, and stratified by patient characteristics.
RESULTS
361,841 adults without a history of cancer presented with intracranial tumors between 2010–2015. Across all ages, these were comprised of 1) brain metastases (BMs; 25%: 29% in males vs. 23% in females); 2) meningiomas (25%: 15% in males, but 34% in females) including atypical (n=4,565) and anaplastic (n=833); 3) diffuse infiltrative gliomas (21%: 26% in males vs. 17% in females), mostly GBMs (14%); followed by 4) sellar (14%), 5) cranial nerve (6%), and PCNSL (3%) tumors. The remaining types each comprised ≤2 % of brain tumors, including mesenchymal non-meningothelial tumors (2%), intracranial ependymal (0.8%), mixed neuronal-glial (0.7%), circumscribed “other astrocytomas” (0.6%, mostly pilocytic astrocytomas n=1,307 and PXAs n=272), CNS embryonal (0.3%), pineal (0.2%), GCTs (0.1%), and choroid plexus (0.1%) tumors. In the 91,686 patients presenting with a BM, the most common primaries were lung adenocarcinoma (39%), lung SmallCC (14%), lung SqCC (8%), breast (8% of females), melanoma (3%), kidney (3%), colorectal (2%), and esophageal (1%). The distributions of brain tumor types differed significantly by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and insurance status.
CONCLUSIONS
In adult patients where the first manifestation of cancer includes an intracranial tumor, the most common diagnosis is either metastatic disease (predominantly from NSCLC) in males or benign meningiomas in females; but varies substantially by age group. Notably, our results adjust the traditional teaching that half of all new brain masses are BMs, which in fact represent only ~25% of new intracranial masses.
Variation in insurance status by patient demographics and tumor site among nonelderly adult patients with cancer