ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children from 2001 to 2005 in Brazil. This study aimed to describe the pattern of mortality from central nervous system (CNS) tumors in children in Brazil from 1979 to 2019. METHODS: A descriptive study was carried out using data from the Mortality Information System (SIM) of the Ministry of Health, according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9 and ICD-10), between 1979 and 2019. The frequencies of the distribution of available variables were calculated: age (0 - 19 years), s skin color, tumor behavior, year and place of death (by region), ICD-10, and all of these, excluding skin color (by ICD-9). Mortality rates in general, mortality from neoplasms, and specific rates of CNS tumors were calculated considering the variables described above. RESULTS: In 40 years (1979 - 2019), there were 21,940 deaths due to brain tumors in children. A different pattern of the mortality rate of brain tumors was shown in children per age (increasing until age 5 - 9 years (28.9%) and then decreasing until age 15 - 19 years (20.2%)). The Southeast (44.3%), Northeast (23.4%), and South (17.5%) regions of Brazil had the highest rates; 94.7% of tumors were malignant, and 91.1% of deaths were observed in hospitals. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first description of the mortality rate epidemiology of brain/CNS tumors in children in Brazil over 40 years. Furthermore, tumor malignancy, hospitals, and the Southeast and Northeast region of Brazil are factors associated with a higher mortality rate.
