Abstract
BACKGROUND
Meningiomas are the most common primary central nervous system tumors. Risk factors for meningiomas including obesity, height, history of allergy/atopy or autoimmune diseases, have been previously assessed with conflicting results. We reviewed a large cohort of Israeli adolescents in order to assess potential risk factors for the development of meningiomas.
METHODS
This study analyzed a cohort of 2,035,915 Jewish men and women who underwent obligatory physical examination when aged 16 to 19 years, from 1967 to 2011. Meningioma incidence was identified by linkage to the national cancer registry. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratios for meningioma according to sex, body mass index (BMI), height, history of allergic and autoimmune disease.
RESULTS
Linkage of the adolescent military database with the Israeli cancer registry identified 480 cases (152 males and 328 females) of meningioma during a follow up of 40,304,078-person years. The median age at diagnosis of meningioma was 42.1 ± 9.4 (range 17.4–62.6). On univariate analysis, only female gender (p< 0.01) and height (p< 0.01) were associated with risk for meningioma in the total study population. When stratified by gender, height remained a significant risk factor only in men. Spline analysis in the men group showed the minimum risk at a height of 1.62 meters and a statistically significant increase in the risk for meningioma at heights taller than 1.85 meters. BMI, past medical history including asthma, diabetes, and atopic and autoimmune diseases, were not associated with meningioma risk.
CONCLUSION
in this large population study, we found that sex and taller height in adolescent males was associated with an increased risk of adult meningioma.