• Fabio Ynoe Moraes, Lorine Arias Bonifacio, Gustavo Nader Marta, Samir Abdallah Hanna, Álvaro Nagib Atallah, Vinícius Ynoe Moraes, João Luis Fernandes Silva, and Heloísa Andrade Carvalho.
• Department of Radiation Oncology, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, São Paulo, Brazil.
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2015 Jul 1; 133 (4): 307313307-13.

Context And ObjectiveTo the best of our knowledge, there has been no systematic assessment of the classification of scientific production within the scope of radiation oncology relating to central nervous system tumors. The aim of this study was to systematically assess the status of evidence relating to the central nervous system and to evaluate the geographic origins and major content of these published data.Design And SettingDescriptive critical appraisal study conducted at a private hospital in São Paulo, Brazil.MethodsWe evaluated all of the central nervous system studies published in the journal Radiotherapy & Oncology between 2003 and 2012. The studies identified were classified according to their methodological design and level of evidence. Information regarding the geographical location of the study, the institutions and authors involved in the publication, main condition or disease investigated and time of publication was also obtained.ResultsWe identified 3,004 studies published over the 10-year period. Of these, 125 (4.2%) were considered eligible, and 66% of them were case series. Systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials accounted for approximately 10% of all the published papers. We observed an increase in high-quality evidence and a decrease in low-quality published papers over this period (P = 0.036). The inter-rater reliability demonstrated significant agreement between observers in terms of the level of evidence.ConclusionsIncreases in high-level evidence and in the total number of central nervous system papers were clearly demonstrated, although the overall number of such studies remained relatively small.

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