Epidemiologic data on meningiomas in East Germany 1961-1986: incidence, localization, age and sex distribution

From 1961 to 1986, 8119 new cases of meningioma were reported to the National Cancer Register of East Germany (former German Democratic Republic) with an average population of 16.9 million. The crude annual incidence was 1.85 per 100,000 population. The crude rates were 1.16 for males, and 2.44 per 100,000 for women; after age adjustment ("world" population) these rates were 0.90 and 1.92 per 100,000, respectively. Thus meningioma occurred 2.1 times more frequently in women than men. Independent of sex, the incidence rose continuously with increasing age. At the same time, there appeared to be an increase in meningioma frequency in the course of the 26-year reporting period. The overwhelming majority of cases, 7375, (90.8%) were intracranial in location but 711 (8.8%) were intraspinal. Some 50% of all cases were first discovered at autopsy, with the proportion of such cases being markedly higher in the older age groups.