Pathologic Characteristics and Treatment Outcome of Patients with Malignant Brain Tumors: A Single Institutional Experience from Iran

Background: central nervous system tumors account for 2%-5% of allmalignancies in humans. these tumors account for 2% of all pediatric cancers. theworldwide incidence of primary central nervous system tumors is estimated at 3.9(males) and 3.2 (females) per 100000 person-years. the incidence of brain tumor caseshas been reported as 3.67% of all malignancies and 4% of all cancer mortalities iniran. the five most common histological types of brain tumor in iran according todifferent case studies are; meningioma, astrocytoma, glioblastoma, pituitary adenomaand ependymoma. the aim of this study is to determine the histopathological patternand characteristics of patients with brain tumors who have referred to the mahdiehradiotherapy department, hamadan, iran.methods: this descriptive, retrospective study was performed at the mahdiehradiotherapy department, between 2005 and 2012. we included 220 patients whoreferred to the radiotherapy department with diagnoses of primary brain tumor inthis study. results: between 2005 and 2012, we treated 220 new cases of primary brain tumorat mahdieh radiotherapy department. the mean age at diagnosis was 39.95±15.48years with a median age of 39 years. patients' ages ranged from 4 to 75 years.among the 220 patients, 138 were male and 82 were female with a male to femaleratio of 1.68. for most tumors there was a male predominance, with the exceptionof meningioma (m/f: 0.23), ependymoma (m/f: 1) and pituitary adenoma (m/f: 0.6).astrocytomas, glioblastomas, high grade meningiomas and oligodendrogliomaswere the four most common pathologies treated in this department. the best treatmentresults were achieved in patients with astrocytomas.conclusion: the present study is a retrospective radiotherapy centre-based studydesigned in a pioneer radiotherapy centre in western iran, not a prospective populationstudy. these data have provided a baseline for further epidemiological studies. ourencouraging results in radiotherapy treatment of primary malignant tumors clearlyhighlight the benefits of definitive or postoperative radiation.