Trends in pediatric CNS tumors in Armenia: a multicenter retrospective study

Central nervous system (CNS) tumors are the most common solid malignancies in children worldwide, including in Armenia. The current study aims to analyze epidemiological data, treatment, and outcomes of children and young adults (≤25 years) with CNS tumors in Armenia during the last 26 years.

We collected data from pediatric and young adult patients treated in selected sites in Armenia from 1^st January 1995 to 31^st December 2020. Incidence by sex, age at diagnosis, time from first complaints to diagnosis, histopathology results, treatment strategies, complications, and overall survival (OS) rates were calculated.

The multicenter data analysis revealed 149 patients with diagnosed primary CNS tumors over 26 years. Among them, 84 (56.4%) were male. The median age at diagnosis was 7 years (range, 3 months to 25 years), and the median time from the first complaints to diagnosis was 2 months (range, 1 week to 70 months). Medulloblastomas and other embryonal tumors (47), low-grade gliomas (32), and high-grade gliomas (22) were the most commonly diagnosed malignancies. Ependymomas, craniopharyngiomas, germ cell tumors, and other malignancies were observed in 22 patients. For 26 patients, no histopathological or radiological diagnosis was available. Follow-up information was available for 98 (65.8%) patients. The 5-year OS rate for the whole study group was 67.7%.

Consistent with international data, embryonal tumors, and gliomas were the most commonly diagnosed CNS malignancies in Armenia. Multimodal treatment was often not available in Armenia during the study period, especially for early cases.