Epidemiology of pediatric primary brain tumors: A five- year review from a single Indonesian tertiary health-care center (original) (raw)

OBJECTIVE: There are several reports regarding the epidemiology of pediatric primary brain tumors. However, little is known about the profile in Indonesia, particularly in Surabaya. The authors report the results of epidemiological analysis of a retrospective review of childhood primary brain tumors in a single tertiary health-care center. MATERIAL-METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of all cases of primary brain tumors from 1 to 18 years diagnosed at the Department of Neurosurgery Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga/dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia between January 2015 and December 2019. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-one primary brain tumors were reviewed with a mean of 30.2 cases per year. Accord- ing to the gender, 56.9% (86 cases) of the tumors occurred in males. The mean age was 9.24 years. Of all the tumors, 55% were situated in the supratentorial compartment. In the infratentorial compartment, 78% (53 cases) of tumors are located in the cerebellum. In the supratentorial compartment, 35% (29 cases) of tumors are located in the sellar/suprasellar region. The most common types of tumors diagnosed were pilocytic astrocytoma and medulloblastoma together accounting for half of the cases (50%, 75 cases) (26.5% and 23.5% respectively), followed by glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) (6%, 9 cases), ependymoma (6%, 9 cases), germinoma (5.3%, 8 cases), craniopharyngioma (4.6%, 7 cases), ganglioglioma (3.3%, 5 cases), supratentorial central nervous system (CNS) embryonal tumor/primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) (2.6%, 4 cases), and meningioma (2.6%, 4 cases). The other tumors represent 20.2%. CONCLUSION: This retrospective study on 151 consecutive patients established a baseline of pediatric primary brain tumors pattern on the basis of histopathological experience at a tertiary health-care center in Surabaya, Indonesia.