Sophia Tahiri

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Gilchrist, Sandra

Area of Concentration

Neurobiology

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine prognostic factors that are associated with pediatric patient central nervous system tumor outcome. The current study was conducted from January 1993 to January 2016 at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida and included retrospective data from primary brain tumor patients aged 0-18 years old that have been seen at this facility at least once. The studied factors include diagnosis, sex, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and Florida region. It was expected that low grade gliomas would be the most prevalent tumor type and high grade gliomas will be the least prevalent. Female patients were expected to have lower frequency than male patients. Self-identified White individuals were expected to have a higher frequency than Black, Asian, Hispanic, and other populations. Overweight and obese individuals were expected to appear more frequently than healthy weight individuals. It was expected that the West-Central Florida Region will have higher tumor incidence than out of state and other Florida regions. Due to data collection limitations involved in a retroactive study, other factors, such as birth weight, birth order, and age at diagnosis were not explicitly investigated in the current study, but remain crucial factors involved in childhood brain cancer diagnosis. It was found that White individuals were more likely than average to be diagnosed with a low grade glioma tumor and a tumor categorized as other. Additionally, patients in the West-Central region of Florida, where the study occurred, had significantly higher probability of having a tumor categorized as other than patients not from this region. The intent of this study is to address the significance that certain presenting factors in children with brain cancer have on diagnosis.

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