Epidemiology of central nervous system tumors at the Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía in Mexico City.

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of different Central Nervous System Tumors (CNST) diagnosed at the Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía (National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery) from Mexico City over a 10-year period (1990 to 1999) by means of a hospital survey. This institute is a reference hospital that provides medical attention to a very high number of adult neurological patients every year (approximately 6,000 new patients per year besides emergency cases). From a total number of 2,041 CNST cases, we found that the most frequent tumors were those affecting the neuroepithelial tissue (32.8 %), followed by tumors of the anterior pituitary gland (26.2 %) and tumors of the meninges and similar tissues (24.1 %). In both, male and female patients the higher frequency of CNST was found in patients whose age ranged from 25 to 44 years, and CNST were slightly more frequent in women than in men. Most of the CNST patients lived in the southern districts of Mexico City, it could be because of the great number of people living in the southern districts of the city, or perhaps due to the presence of certain yet unidentified environmental carcinogenic substance in this area. Since CNST are among the more frequent malignant neoplasms, it is necessary to improve the registration system to include frequency, prevalence, incidence and mortality of these diseases in Mexico, in order to plan health policies like in developed countries.