High Incidence of Benign Brain Meningiomas among Iranian-born Jews in Israel may be Linked to both Hereditary and Environmental Factors

Abstract

Patients that were born in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece were used for the analysis, whereby we calculated adjusted incidence rates per 100,000 people and computed standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) comparing the Iranian-born to each of the three other groups. Results: Iranian-born Jews had statistically significant higher meningioma rates rates compared to other Jews originating in Balkan states: 1.46 fold compared to Turkish Jews and 1.86 fold compared to the Bulgaria-Greece group. There was a small increase in risk for the Iranian born group compared to those who were born in Iraq (1.06, not significant). Conclusions: Higher rates of meningiomas were seen in Jews originating in Iran that are living in Israel as compared to rates in neighboring countries of origin. These differences can be in part attributed to early life environmental exposures in Iran but probably in larger amount are due to genetic and hereditary factors in a closed community like the Iranian Jews. Some support for this conclusion was also found in other published research.

A Retrospective Analysis of Intracranial Meningiomas in a Tertiary Health Care Facility in North Central Nigeria

“…Neurofibromatosis type II and multiple endocrine neoplasia type I have been genetically linked to the development of meningiomas, while ionizing radiation, exogenous female sex hormone use, viral infections, and trauma are proposed environmental risk factors. [1,[3][4][5][6][10][11][12][13][14] Meningiomas have been reported to occur in varied locations with most cases arising within the intracranial and intraspinal cavity. Sites of meningioma occurrence outside the neural axis include the lungs, skin and adrenal gland.…”