OBJECTIVES: To describe patient characteristics and survival in a cohort of commercially insured individuals with incident malignant brain tumors. METHODS: The Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Research Databases were used to identify adults with incident malignant neoplasm of the brain (191.xx) who underwent brain surgery (index event) during 2006-2010. Patients were required to have 6 months of continuous enrollment prior to the index surgery and were excluded if they received chemotherapy, temozolomide, or brain surgery or had another primary or secondary cancer during the pre-index period. Eligible patients were then linked to the Social Security Administration (SSA) master death files.  The SSA death files indicate the presence and date of death.  The combined dataset was used to describe patient characteristics, post-surgery treatment and survival.  RESULTS: A total of 2484 patients in the linked database met the study criteria.  Mean age was 56.9 (SD=14.4) and 63.7% were male.  The mean Deyo Charlson Comorbidity Index score was 0.59 (SD=1.11) over the six month pre-index period (modified to exclude malignancy).  Overall, median survival time was 976 days (95% confidence interval: 847, 1194). A greater proportion of women (75%) than men (67%) were alive 365 days after their index surgery.  Survival time decreased steadily with age as 98% of patients age 19-34 survived for at least 365 days after surgery compared to 95% for patients 35-44, 84% for patients 45-54, 70% for patients 55-64 and 43% for patients over 65.  Most patients (52.1%) received external beam radiation, while 42.2% received temozolomide, 5.4% received a carmustine wafer implant, 2.0% received chemotherapy (including bevacizumab) and 1.3% received stereotactic radiosurgery within 90 days of their index surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Linking claims and public death records provided results in large populations that were similar to those in clinical trials and observational literature, both in terms of survival and treatment patterns.