Pediatric Intracranial Tumors over a 5-Year Period in a Tertiary Care Center of North Kerala, India: A Retrospective Analysis

BACKGROUND: Pediatric brain tumors are unique in terms of distribution, clinical presentation, pathologic types, management, and prognosis. There are not many studies from India which have looked into the epidemiology of pediatric brain tumors. AIMS: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiology of pediatric brain tumors in North Kerala and compare it with data from the rest of India and other countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 5-year data of pediatric brain tumors which were operated in a tertiary referral center in North Kerala, India, from 2009 to 2013. The data were procured from the departments of neurosurgery and pathology of the institution. The data were tabulated and analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: A total of 71 children had histologically proven brain tumors during the 5-year period. There were 34 boys and 37 girls. Distribution in different age groups was as follows: infancy –5 (7%), 1–5 years –22 (31%), 6–10 years – 21 (29.6%), and 11–18 years – 23 (32.4%). The most common tumors were primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs). In infancy, the number of high-grade tumors was more, whereas in the 11–18 years’ age group, there were a significantly higher number of low-grade tumors (P = 0.04). DISCUSSION: Pediatric brain tumors were distributed almost equally in both sexes. PNET was the most common. We could not get statistical significance in many of our values due to small sample size. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the need for diligent collection of data and maintenance of a registry for brain tumors to study the disease in the Indian population.