Brain Tumours in Malawi, Rhodesia and Zambia

Abstract

This paper is a comparative study of the expanding intracranial masses seen in the African and European populations of Malawi, Rhodesia and Zambia during the 15 years between January 1957 and December 1971 inclusive. Meningiomas accounted for 2 1% of all the total of 258 space-occupying lesions seen among the Africans and 12% of the 305 cases seen in the European population. On the other hand, the incidence of astrocytomas was 15 and 30%, respectively, in the African and European populations. Tuberculoma which formed 14% of the intracranial masses in the Africans was not seen at all in the Europeans. While there appears to be no racial difference in the anatomical location of these tumours, one major point of contrast was that the tumour size was much larger in the African than in his European counterpart.