Prognostic value of age in neurological cancer: an analysis of 22,393 cases from the SEER database

Although the risk of neurological cancer (NC) is age-dependent, few studies have evaluated the prognostic value of age in determining NC survival in a large population. The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the long-term survival of young and elderly NC patients. We searched the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results database and identified 22,393 patients who were diagnosed with NC between 1988 and 2003 and were treated with surgery. Patients were categorized as young (≤40 years old) or elderly (>40 years old), and 5-year NC-specific survival (NCSS) data were obtained for each patient. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze long-term survival outcomes and risk factors. The two groups differed significantly in terms of pathological grade, histological type, stage, and tumor size ( P < 0.001). A difference in 5-year NCSS rates (63.8 and 19.0 % in young and elderly patients, respectively) was detected by uni- and multivariate analyses. A stratified analysis of age on cancer survival revealed significant differences at T1–T4 stages. Age has prognostic value for determining NC risk. NCSS is higher in young than in elderly NC patients.