Trends in incidence and mortality of brain cancer: An observational study of the Global Burden of Disease database from 1990 to 2019.
Authors: Bhatt Padmanabh Shrikant , Jani Chinmay , Shah Darshil , Ahmed Alaaeldin , Mariano Melissa , Singh Harpreet , Graber Jerome J. , Salciccioli Justin D 
Published: June 2022

e18720

Background: Brain cancer is relatively rare accounting for approximately 1.3% of all cancer diagnoses in the US annually, however it has a particularly poor prognosis with 5-year survival at 33%. The morbidity and mortality associated with brain cancer is high, while global epidemiological data relating to it remains scarce. This study investigates brain cancer incidence, mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in the EU 15+ countries and six WHO world regions. Methods: We extracted data for 19 countries, including the EU nations as well as other selected high-income countries including the UK and USA from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database. This data included age-standardized incidence ratio (ASIR), age-standardized mortality ratio (ASMR) and DALY from brain cancer (ICD 10 codes C70-C72, D42-D43.9, D44.3-D44.5) between 1990 and 2019. Joinpoint analyses were used to describe trends further. Results: Greece was noted to have the highest DALY for both sexes with 252/100,000 and 174/100,000 respectively for males and females. The majority of countries saw a drop in DALY during the study period (14/19 for males and 19/19 for females). Greece also reported the highest ASMR over the study period for both sexes at 7.8/100,000 and 5.3/100,000 respectively for males and females. The majority of countries also saw a decline in ASMR (12/19 for males and 16/19 for females) with Belgium noting the largest decline for males and females at -27.2% and -34.3% respectively. Denmark was noted to have the highest ASIR in 2019 for both sexes with 17.9/100,000 and 16.4/100,000 respectively for males and females. Most countries reported an increase in ASIR over the study period (17/19 for males and 15/19 for females). Denmark displayed the greatest increase in incidence for both sexes with an 84.5% and 64.3% increase, respectively, for males and females. Notably, the countries with the highest incidences and DALYs, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Greece, also had the highest mortality. All countries saw a decline in the mortality-to-incidence ratio over the study period, with Denmark and Ireland showing the greatest drop for both sexes. Conclusions: Over the study period, the burden of brain cancer has decreased in most countries as measured by DALY, ASMR, and mortality-to-incidence ratios. However, incidence rates have increased. The reduced disease burden may be due to the use of temazolamide which has improved outcomes in MGMT methylated and IDH mutated gliomas, with PCV chemotherapy with radiation therapy having similar effects for high risk low grade gliomas. The preferential use of bevacizumab may explain some of the differing trends between European and other developed countries. Future work is required to delineate the diverging trends between global disease burden and incidence while highlighting the etiology of these changes.