A STUDY OF PEDIATRIC BRAIN-TUMORS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH EPILEPSYAND ANTICONVULSANT USE

Objectives: To evaluate the risk of childhood brain tumor occurrence i n relation to epilepsy and anticonvulsant use, Study Design: As part o f a multicenter case-control study of pediatric brain tumors, maternal report on epilepsy occurrence before diagnosis of her child's brain t umor was collected for 540 cases and compared with 801 control childre n, Mothers also reported on any long-term (greater than or equal to 2 weeks) use of medications by her child before the date of tumor diagno sis (or a comparable reference date for controls) and these medication s were classified according to whether they contained barbiturates, Re sults: As expected, because seizures are often an early brain tumor sy mptom, a strong association was observed between epilepsy and brain tu mor occurrence (odds ratio, OR = 6.2; 95% confidence limit, CL = 2.9, 14). The association remained elevated even after a greater than or eq ual to 10-year interval between diagnoses of epilepsy and brain tumor (OR = 4.7; CL = 0.8, 48), Elevated odds ratios were observed both for epileptic children who were treated with anticonvulsants containing ba rbiturates (OR = 5.8; CL = 2.2, 18) and for those not treated with bar biturates (OR = 7.9; CL = 1.7, 74), relative to nonepileptic children, Conclusion: Whereas most of the brain tumor risk associated with epil epsy may be due to occult tumors, the finding of an elevated risk many years after diagnosis of epilepsy is of interest.