Incidence Rates of Pediatric Central Nervous Tumors Display No Geographical Variation

Abstract

Background: Central nervous system (CNS) tumors affect over 4,600 children throughout the United States each year. Despite recent trends of increasing incidence of pediatric CNS tumors, the understanding of variations in their incidence between different geographical regions remains incomplete. Methods: Data used in this study was obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. The SEER database and its built-in operation software was used to generate state-specific incidence data for newly diagnosed CNS tumor diagnoses in children ages 0-19 for the years 2001-2014. Results were organized by tumor type and individual states were clustered into nine geographical regions as defined by the United States Census Bureau. Results: Statistically significant differences were found in the regional incidence of astrocytoma, primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), and the category of unspecified intracranial and intraspinal neoplasms. However, the magnitude of the difference in incidence (ΔI) between specific regions was small, on the order of 0.1 to 0.6 per 100,000 population, representing a nominal 0.05-fold to 0.79-fold change in incidence (ΔI/incidence for comparator region) for astrocytoma and for the category of unspecified intracranial and intraspinal neoplasms, and a larger 3.25-fold to 3.75-fold change in incidence for PNET. Conclusions: Differences in incidence between geographical regions for certain CNS tumor types met the bar for statistical significance. However, these differences are unlikely to be clinically meaningful due to the small effect size.