An analysis of brain tumors in south Taiwan.

A series of 544 pathologically verified brain tumors were analyzed for the relative incidence and location of tumors as well as the distribution of age and sex. These data were compared to series from north Taiwan, mainland China, America, Germany, and Japan. The incidence of gliomas among brain tumors in south Taiwan (25.4%) was lower than other reports (31-44%). It is interesting to note that the incidence of gliomas in Asian reports is lower than those in America and Germany. A much higher percentage of meningiomas and pituitary adenomas were seen in Taiwan's reports than in those from other countries. Aggressive surgical decompression of brain metastases in selected cases is advised and they comprised 15.1% of total brain tumors operated on. The incidence of brain tumors in the older age group in south Taiwan (22.1%) was much higher than those reported from mainland China (1.65%). Our series revealed a preponderance of tumors in females over males, which may be affected by the greater number of female-predominate meningiomas and pituitary adenomas.