Introduction: Tumours of the central nervous system (CNS) are one of the most common causes of child mortality, second only to accidents. In the last few decades we have witnessed an increase in the incidence of these tumours, which now stands at 2.5-3.2 cases/100,000 children/year in the population under 15 years of age.
Aims: To determine the real incidence of tumours affecting the CNS in Asturias and to describe their characteristics.
Patients and methods: Data were collected on patients under 15 years of age who had been diagnosed with a CNS tumour in any of the hospitals in the Community during the ten-year period 1999-2008.
Results: The mean annual incidence of CNS tumours was 4.4 cases/100,000 children/year (range: 3.1-5.7). The mean time elapsed before a diagnosis was reached was 2.03 months. The clinical features at onset were focal neurological deficit in 58% of cases, followed by cerebellar symptoms (42%), headache (32%) and behavioural disorders (32%).
Conclusions: The incidence of tumours affecting the CNS found in children in Asturias is the highest of those recorded for this age bracket, the clinical features of these patients being similar to those in other studies. We seem to be before new data that confirms the claims of a growing incidence of these tumours.