The Impact of the Benign Brain Tumor Cancer Registries Amendment Act (Public Law 107-260) on Non-malignant Brain and Central Nervous System Tumor Incidence Trends

Abstract

The study objective was to investigate patterns of reported non-malignant brain and CNS tumor incidence over a time period encompassing 1997-2008 during which time the Benign Brain Tumor Cancer Registries Amendment Act (PL 107-260) was passed and implemented. Analyses of 75,350 incident non-malignant brain and CNS tumors from eleven population-based central registries revealed that there were statistically significant increases in the age-adjusted incidence rate for non-malignant tumors for those diagnosed prior to 2002 and over the time period from 2002 until 2005. However, no significant change in the age-adjusted incidence rate for non-malignant tumors was observed over the time period 2005 to 2008 indicating that the incidence from this time period may quantify the "true" incidence of non-malignant brain and CNS tumors in the United States.

Keywords: brain; central nervous system; incidence; non-malignant; patterns.