Epidemiologic patterns of primary brain tumors in Iran

There appear to be some differences between the patterns of brain tumor epidemiology in Iran and western countries. Thus, the prevalence of glioma was earlier estimated to be about 45% of all brain tumors, somewhat low in comparison to the western reports at that time, but almost the same as in Southeast Asian countries. A similar low figure was also obtained more recently indicating that the earlier estimate was not simply due to the lack of medical facilities resulting in under-reporting of this particularly malignant form of cancer. There may also be differences regarding incidences of central nervous system (CNS) tumors in females between Iran and Western countries. Clearly this is an area which deserves epidemiological research.