Epidemiology of gliomas

Abstract

Gliomas are the most common malignant adult brain tumor and one of the mostlethal human cancers. The etiology of these highly aggressive tumors is still largelyunknown. Associations with rare hereditary disorders, family history and commonvariants identified in genome wide association studies indicate that inherited geneticsusceptibility explains a share of the interindividual risk for developing glioma. Thecontribution of environmental risk factors and lifestyle is not clear though availableevidence suggests a less prominent role for exogenous exposures in the onset of gliomawhen compared to other tumors. This chapter provides an overview of the descriptiveepidemiology of glioma and summarizes current knowledge on genetic and lifestyle riskfactors and directions for future research. © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.