United States incidence rates of central nervous system (CNS) cancer have remained stable over the past 3 decades, while mortality and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) have declined, according to new findings published in JAMA Neurology.

Researchers sought to provide updated, detailed estimates of CNS cancer burden across states, sexes, age groups, and sociodemographic index (SDI) categories from 1990 to 2021.

The cross-sectional study used Global Burden of Disease 2021 data encompassing 183 US registries and health records. CNS cancer cases were defined using diagnostic codes. The analysis estimated incidence, prevalence, deaths, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and DALYs. Mortality was modeled using mortality-to-incidence ratios derived through spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, and the relationship between SDI and disease burden was evaluated using Spearman rank correlations.

These findings may help assess the public health landscape and inform health policy and resources reallocation for CNS cancer in the US.

In 2021, an estimated 31,780 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 29,971.10-32,843.90) new CNS cancer cases were reported in the US, corresponding to an age-standardized incidence rate of 6.91 per 100,000 (95% UI, 6.58-7.12) population.

While incidence did not change significantly from 1990 to 2021 (-1.45%; 95% UI, -4.41% to 0.91%), DALYs decreased by 15.77% (95% UI, -17.75% to -13.68%) and mortality decreased by 8.41% (95% UI, -11.09% to -6.22%).

Burden was highest in states such as Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Kansas, and West Virginia, and lowest in Washington, DC; Hawai‘i; New York; New Jersey; and California. Men experienced a higher incidence (7.96) than women (5.97) per 100,000 population. Incidence decreased significantly among children younger than 5 years but increased in adults older than 70 years. Further, DALYs and mortality rates were inversely correlated with SDI (ρ=-0.6860 and ρ=-0.6391, respectively; P < .001), underscoring socioeconomic disparities in outcomes.

Study limitations include reliance on modeled estimates from secondary data sources, potential misclassification or underreporting in cancer registries, and the ecological design, which precludes causal inference.

“These findings may help assess the public health landscape and inform health policy and resources reallocation for CNS cancer in the US,” concluded the authors.

Disclosures: Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.