Characterizing Brain Tumor Research: The Role of the National Institutes of Health

M.W Itagaki,W.B Pope

doi:10.3174/ajnr.a1904

Abstract

The contribution of radiology to brain tumor research is unknown. We sought to determine how the proportion of neuro-oncologic publications generated by radiology departments has changed and if there is an association with NIH funding levels. Therefore we searched The National Library of Medicine's PubMed database for all articles published on brain neoplasms from 1996 to 2007. Country and department of origin and NIH grant support were noted for each article. Approximately 10% of brain tumor publications originated from radiology departments, ranking third among medical specialties. NIH funding for this research grew from less than 20% in 1996 to more than 50% in 2007. Overall NIH funding levels rose approximately 2.5 fold during this time. The U.S. was the dominant producer of brain tumor publications, and the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world grew over the study period. Thus a substantial proportion of brain tumor publications originate from radiology departments, and the percentage of this research that is funded by the NIH has grown significantly during a period of increasing NIH budgets.

Highlights

NIH funding levels are scheduled to get a one-time boost of $8.2 billion for 2 years in extramural funding associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.8,9
The United States was the dominant producer of brain tumor research, in terms of number of articles published during the study period (6292), followed by Japan (2270), Germany (1773), and France (847, Fig 1)
NIH funding levels are scheduled to get a one-time boost of $8.2 billion in extramural funding associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Summary

Introduction

The United States was the dominant producer of brain tumor research, in terms of number of articles published during the study period (6292), followed by Japan (2270), Germany (1773), and France (847, Fig 1). Articles from neurosurgery and radiology departments were published in journals with lower mean journal impact factors than several other specialties, including pathology, neurology, and hematology-oncology. The journal impact factor for articles from radiology departments averaged 2.2, compared with 3.4 for hematology-oncology, but trended up during the 12-year study period.

Results

Conclusion