Spinal cord tumors in the People's Republic of China: a statistical review.

This paper summarizes data on 1639 pathologically confirmed spinal cord tumors described in three reports published in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The average ratio of brain to spinal cord tumors in these studies was 8:1. The ratio of neurinomas to meningiomas was 3.8:1; this value is much higher than those found in western reports (almost 1:1), but is close to the ratio reported in the Japanese literature (3.9:1). Eleven per cent of the spinal cord tumors in the PRC were dysembryoplastic. In children, the percentage was 52.7%, one of the highest values reported in the world literature. Meningioma was the only type of spinal cord tumor that occurred more frequently in females than in males (2.5:1). Children (under 16 years old) had 19% and elderly patients (over 60 years old) had 2.6% of the spinal cord tumors in the PRC.