Brain tumors in the People's Republic of China: a statistical review.

This review analyzes 12,785 cases of pathologically confirmed brain tumors from three published subseries in the People's Republic of China (PRC). No major differences among these series (from different geographical locations) were found. The incidence of glioma was lower in the PRC than in the West, but higher than in Japan; the incidence of meningioma in the PRC was close to that reported from Japan, but lower than that in the West. In the PRC, neurinomas and pituitary adenomas were more frequent than in the West or Japan, and dysembryoplastic tumors seemed to be much more common than in the West or Japan. Metastasis of breast carcinoma to the brain was rare in the PRC. According to a statistical study of 4,059 cases, there were more brain tumors in males than in females (ratio, 1.7:1). Children compose 19% of the series, and elderly patients (over 55 years old) constitute 2.8%.