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Brain Tumor Care in Relation to Patient Age—An Observational Study Between Years 2016 and 2022 in a Nationwide Cohort in Germany
by
, , , ,
Frederic Bold
1,2, 
Gerardo Rico Gonzalez
1,3,
Rüdiger Gerlach
4,
Oliver Heese
5,
Steffen K. Rosahl
4,
Michael Stoffel
6,
Juraj Kukolja
7,8
,
Frederick Palm
9,
Emilia Machado Musri
1,3,
Ali Allam
1,2,
Ralf Kuhlen
10,
Julius Dengler
1,3,*,
Sven Hohenstein
11,
Andreas Bollmann
11 and
Nora F. Dengler
1,3 1
Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, Medical School Theodor Fontane, Campus Bad Saarow, 15526 Bad Saarow, Germany
2
Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care & Perioperative Pain Management, Helios Hospital Bad Saarow, 15526 Bad Saarow, Germany
3
Department of Neurosurgery, Helios Hospital Bad Saarow, Pieskower Strasse 33, 15526 Bad Saarow, Germany
4
Department of Neurosurgery, Helios Hospital Erfurt, 99089 Erfurt, Germany
5
Department of Neurosurgery, Helios Hospital Schwerin, 19055 Schwerin, Germany
6
Department of Neurosurgery, Helios Hospital Krefeld, 47805 Krefeld, Germany
7
Department of Neurology, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, 42283 Wuppertal, Germany
8
Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, 58455 Witten, Germany
9
Department of Neurology, Helios Hospital Schleswig, 24837 Schleswig, Germany
10
Helios Health Institute, 13125 Berlin, Germany
11
Clinical Trial Management & Real World Data, Helios Health Institute, 13125 Berlin, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Curr. Oncol. 2026, 33(2), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol33020104
Submission received: 16 November 2025
/
Revised: 20 January 2026
/
Accepted: 2 February 2026
/
Published: 5 February 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Geriatric Oncology: Toward Optimized Cancer Care)
Simple Summary
As societies continue to age, brain tumors increasingly affect older patients. Still, large-scale real-world evidence on the longitudinal evolution of the relationship between age and neuro-oncology is scarce. We used data from a nationwide hospital network in Germany to examine trends in brain tumor care for non-elderly vs. elderly patients between years 2016 and 2022. Among the 20,005 subjects included, trends in brain tumor care behaved quite similarly between non-elderly and elderly patients, given that, over time, both groups showed improvements in comorbidity and frailty profiles as well as an increase in rates of brain tumor resection. Only the specific cluster of those aged 75–84 years did not follow any of those trends. Our findings suggest similar trends in brain tumor care between non-elderly and elderly patients. They offer a rare glimpse into real-world dynamics of current neuro-oncological patient cohorts.
Abstract
As societies continue to age, brain tumors increasingly affect older patients. Still, large-scale evidence on whether the relationship between age and brain tumor has been evolving over time is scarce. We examined longitudinal trends among different age groups of patients with brain tumors at 78 German hospitals. Two time periods were compared as follows: phase 1 (1 January 2016–31 December 2019; pre-pandemic) and phase 2 (1 January 2020–31 December 2022; pandemic). Patients were categorized as non-elderly (<65 years) or elderly (≥65 years), and according to 10-year age brackets. The clinical condition was quantified using the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI) and the Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS). Among the 20,005 patients included, changes in characteristics of non-elderly/elderly patients over time behaved similarly, with improvements in ECI (19.3 to 18.4/15.2 to 14.3; each p < 0.01) and HFRS (2.1 to 1.6/4.7 to 4.1; each p < 0.01), and increases in rates of brain tumor resection (26.1% to 31.8%/22.7% to 27.8%; each p < 0.01). Only patients aged 75–84 years did not follow any of those trends. Over the examined 7-year period, general trends in brain tumor care in elderly subjects resembled those observed in non-elderly patients, except for those aged 75–84 years.
Keywords:
brain tumor management; frailty; age; elderly
