Survival of European adolescents and young adults diagnosed with central nervous system tumours and comparison with younger and older age groups: EUROCARE-6 results

Background: Data on the incidence and survival of central nervous system (CNS) tumour entities in adolescents and young adults (15–39 years at cancer diagnosis [AYA]) are scarce. Our objective is to provide incidence, survival and survival trends of CNS tumours in European AYAs and compare with older and younger patients with the same tumours. Methods: We used the EUROCARE-6 database, calculating incidence rates (IR) per 1000,000 individuals/year in the European population (years of diagnosis: 2006–2013), 1-,2-,3-,4- and 5-year relative survival (RS), 5-year RS conditional to surviving the first year after diagnosis, for the follow-up period 2010–2014 (cases diagnosed in 2006–2013) and changes in survival in the years 2000–2013. Results: The IR for CNS tumours was around 20 per 1000,000 in AYAs and children and increased with increasing age. In AYAs, adults (40–69 years), and elderly (70 + years), CNS tumours other than gliomas were very rare. AYAs had better survival than children for gliomas, ependymomas and medulloblastoma and better survival than adults and elderly for all tumours examined. There was a slight improvement in survival of CNS tumours across age groups in Europe throughout 2000–2013. Conclusions: Differences in survival between children and AYAs may be due to differences in biology and treatment. The improvement in survival may be due to advances in neuroimaging and neurosurgical techniques, centralization of neurosurgical and neurooncology expertise, and multidisciplinary management. Our findings are relevant for informing patients and clinicians about survival in AYA CNS tumours that are rarely included in clinical trials.