Primary intracranial lymphomas-incidence and survival: a population-based study

Biopsy is recommended for patients with primary intracranial lymphoma to confirm the diagnosis, but the effect of tumor resection is still controversial. We conducted this retrospective study to better understand the epidemiology of primary intracranial lymphoma in the USA and explore the relationship between surgical resection and prognosis. Data regarding primary intracranial lymphoma, including incidence, were extracted from the SEER database. We analyzed the difference in incidence between different groups of people. We explored the effect of surgery on the survival of patients by the Kaplan-Meier method and evaluated the possible prognostic indicators by multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. The incidence significantly increased with age. The non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander population exhibited the highest incidence, and the incidence was significantly higher in males than females. A total of 6428 cases were included in the cohort study, and most of the patients were diagnosed in the sixth to seventh decade of life. Sixty percent of tumors were supratentorial tumors. Surgery, especially total resection, significantly improved overall survival and cancer-specific survival. The survival of female patients, patients diagnosed before reaching 60 years of age, patients diagnosed after 2010, and patients with supratentorial lymphomas was better than that of their counterparts. The survival of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was worse than that of their counterparts. We conducted a comprehensive retrospective analysis of patients with primary intracranial lymphoma. We analyzed the difference in incidence between different groups of people. Surgery significantly improved overall and cancer-specific survival. The results of our research can help clinicians and patients better understand the epidemiology and management of primary intracranial lymphoma.