There may be an increased risk of developing malignant brain tumors within 3 years following traumatic brain injury (TBI), a Taipei, Taiwan-based study suggests. According to researchers, the population-based study used data from the Traumatic Brain Injury Registry and the National Health Insurance Research Database. Researchers note that the study encompassed 5,007 patients who had visited ambulatory care centers or had been hospitalized with a diagnosis of TBI between 2001 and 2002. A total of 25,035 randomly selected enrollees served as the study’s control group. 

The study reports that each patient’s brain cancer status was individually tracked for a 3-year period following his or her index date. Stratified Cox proportional hazards regressions were performed for analyses. The results indicate that during the 3-year follow-up, 9 patients in both the TBI group and non-TBI were diagnosed with brain cancer. Researchers say that when compared to patients without TBI, patients with TBI exhibited a greater likelihood of receiving a diagnosis of malignant brain tumors within the 3-year period following their index date. 

According to the study’s results, the incidence rate of malignant brain tumors was 6.28 per 10,000 person-years in patients with TBI and 1.25 per 10,000 person-years in patients without TBI. Researchers add that after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, the risk of being diagnosed with malignant brain tumors during the study’s 3-year follow-up period was 4.67 times greater in TBI patients than in patients without a TBI. Researchers also note they pinpointed a potential link between TBI severity and malignant brain tumor among TBI patients..

Source: PubMed