Objective: Brain cancer (BC) is one of the most important cancers which have attracted much attention in recent decades. Due to the lack of statistics on the incidence and mortality of this cancer, this study has been performed with the aim of investigating the age standardized incidence and mortality rate of brain and central nervous system malignancy and its relation with human development index (HDI) and its components.
Materials and Methods: The study was conducted based on the data obtained from the world data of cancer and the World Bank (including the HDI and its components). Data about the age-specific incidence and mortality rate (ASR) for every country in 2012 were got from the global cancer project. We used a bivariate method for assessment of the correlation between SIR and SMR and HDI. Statistical significance was assumed at p<0.05. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS.
Results: In 2012, the incidence and standardized mortality rate of brain and nervous system cancer were 3.4 and 2.5 per hundred thousand people in the world, respectively. Albania had the most incidence and standardized mortality rate of brain and nervous system cancer by 10.4 and 7.5 per hundred thousand people, respectively. There is statistically significant relationship between the standardized incidence rate of brain and nervous system cancer and HDI; this correlation was (p<0.001). A positive correlation of 0.645 was observed between the standardized mortality rate of brain and nervous system cancer and HDI, and this association was statistically significant (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Brain cancer’s age-standardized incidence and mortality rate are more increased in higher HDI countries than countries with a low HDI. Educating people about risk factors of brain and nervous system cancer and prevention of these factors is recommended for decreasing the incidence of this disease.