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The Austrian Brain Tumour Registry: a cooperative way to establish a population-based brain tumour registry

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Abstract

In Austria, registration of malignant brain tumours is legally mandatory, whereas benign and borderline tumours are not reported. The Austrian Brain Tumour Registry (ABTR) was initiated under the auspices of the Austrian Society of Neuropathology for the registration of malignant and non-malignant brain tumours. All Austrian neuropathology units involved in brain tumour diagnostics contribute data on primary brain tumours. Non-microscopically verified cases are added by the Austrian National Cancer Registry to ensure a population-based dataset. In 2005, we registered a total of 1,688 newly diagnosed primary brain tumours in a population of 8.2 million inhabitants with an overall age-adjusted incidence rate of 18.1/100,000 person-years. Non-malignant cases constituted 866 cases (51.3%). The incidence rate was higher in females (18.6/100,000) as compared to males (17.8/100,000), while 95/1,688 (5.6%) cases were diagnosed in children (<18 years). The most common histology was meningioma (n = 504, 29.9%) followed by glioblastoma (n = 340, 20.1%) and pituitary adenoma (n = 151, 8.9%). Comparison with the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) database showed high congruency of findings. The ABTR model led by neuropathologists in collaboration with epidemiologists and the Austrian National Cancer Registry presents a cooperative way to establish a population-based brain tumour registry with high quality data. This setting links cancer registration to the mission of medical practice and research as defined by the World Medical Association in the Declaration of Helsinki. The continued operation of ABTR will aid in monitoring changes in incidence and in identifying regional disease clusters or geographic variations in brain tumour morbidity/mortality.

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Acknowledgments

ABTR is supported by the Anniversary Fund of the Österreichische Nationalbank (project no: 12268). The study is part of the doctoral thesis Brain Tumour Epidemiology in Austria (www.meduniwien.ac.at/clins). The authors are grateful to Andreas Jurkowitsch for IT support, Markus Neumann for support with regard to data confidentiality issues, and Hermann Hayn for legal advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1097, Vienna, Austria

    Adelheid Wöhrer & Johannes Andreas Hainfellner

  2. Austrian Society of Neuropathology, Austria, Austria

    Adelheid Wöhrer & Johannes Andreas Hainfellner

  3. Center of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1097, Vienna, Austria

    Thomas Waldhör

  4. Core Unit for Medical Statistics and Informatics, Section of Clinical Biometrics, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1097, Vienna, Austria

    Harald Heinzl

  5. Austrian National Cancer Registry, Statistics Austria, Guglgasse 13, 1110, Vienna, Austria

    Monika Hackl

  6. Department of Pathology, Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung, Juchgasse 25, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Johann Feichtinger

  7. Department of Pathology, Feldkirch State Hospital, Carinagasse 47, 6807, Feldkirch, Austria

    Ulrike Gruber-Mösenbacher

  8. Institute of Pathology, State Hospital Klagenfurt, St. Veiter Strasse 47, 9020, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Andreas Kiefer

  9. Department of Pathology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Christoph-Probst-Platz Innrain 52, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Hans Maier

  10. Department of Pathology and Neuropathology, State Neuropsychiatric Hospital Wagner-Jauregg, Wagner-Jauregg-Weg 15, 4020, Linz, Austria

    Reinhard Motz

  11. Institute of Pathology, Danube Hospital, Langobardenstrasse 122, 1220, Vienna, Austria

    Angelika Reiner-Concin

  12. Department of Neurosurgery, Christian Doppler Clinic, Paracelsus Private Medical University, Strubergasse 21, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Bernd Richling

  13. Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler Clinic, Paracelsus Private Medical University, Strubergasse 21, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Carmen Idriceanu

  14. Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 25, 8036, Graz, Austria

    Michael Scarpatetti

  15. Department of Clinical Pathology, General Hospital St. Pölten, Probst-Führer-Strasse 4, 3100, St. Pölten, Austria

    Roland Sedivy & Hans-Christian Bankl

  16. Institute of Pathology, General Hospital Wiener Neustadt, Corvinusring 3-5, 2700, Wiener Neustadt, Austria

    Wolfgang Stiglbauer

  17. Department of Internal Medicine I, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1097, Vienna, Austria

    Matthias Preusser

  18. Task Force for Neurosurgical Oncology, Austrian Society of Neurosurgery, Austria

    Karl Rössler

Authors
  1. Adelheid Wöhrer
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  2. Thomas Waldhör
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  3. Harald Heinzl
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  4. Monika Hackl
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  5. Johann Feichtinger
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  8. Hans Maier
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  9. Reinhard Motz
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  10. Angelika Reiner-Concin
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  11. Bernd Richling
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  12. Carmen Idriceanu
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  13. Michael Scarpatetti
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  14. Roland Sedivy
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  15. Hans-Christian Bankl
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  16. Wolfgang Stiglbauer
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  17. Matthias Preusser
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  18. Karl Rössler
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  19. Johannes Andreas Hainfellner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johannes Andreas Hainfellner.

Additional information

Definition of epidemiological terms

Incidence rates: measure the occurrence of newly diagnosed cases of disease within a defined time period. Rates are expressed per 100,000 person-years and age-adjusted to the US 2000 standard population. Age-specific rates are calculated for a subset of a population and describe the rate of disease in defined age groups. Smoothed incidence rates (SIR) are calculated by incorporating population size using random effect models (see "Methods").

Survival rates: are the probability (percentages) of surviving for a specified time period.

Death-certificate-only (DCO) cases: are cancer cases identified only from the death certificate.

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Wöhrer, A., Waldhör, T., Heinzl, H. et al. The Austrian Brain Tumour Registry: a cooperative way to establish a population-based brain tumour registry. J Neurooncol 95, 401–411 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-009-9938-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-009-9938-9

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