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An estimate of the number of people in Italy living after a childhood cancer
Author(s) -
Francisci Silvia,
Guzzinati Stefano,
Dal Maso Luigino,
Sacerdote Carlotta,
Buzzoni Carlotta,
Gigli Anna
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.30665
Subject(s) - medicine , cancer , childhood cancer , pediatrics , population , quarter (canadian coin) , demography , childhood leukemia , gerontology , leukemia , environmental health , lymphoblastic leukemia , archaeology , sociology , history
Cancers diagnosed in children below the age of 15 years represent 1.2% of all cancer cases, and survival after a childhood cancer has greatly improved over the past 40 years in all high income countries. This study aims to estimate the number of people living in Italy after a childhood cancer for all cancers combined and for a selection of cancer types. We computed 15‐year prevalence using data from 15 Italian population‐based cancer registries (covering 19% of Italian population) and estimated complete prevalence for Italy by using the CHILDPREV method, implemented in the COMPREV software. A total of 44,135 persons were alive at January 1st, 2010 after a cancer diagnosed during childhood. This number corresponds to a proportion of 73 per 100,000 Italians and to about 2% of all prevalent cases. Among them, 54% were males and 64% had survived after being diagnosed before 1995, the start of the observation period. A quarter of all childhood prevalent cases were diagnosed with brain and central nervous system tumors, a quarter with acute lymphoid leukemia, and 7% with Hodgkin lymphoma. Nearly a quarter of prevalent patients were aged 40 years and older. Information about the number of people living after a childhood cancer in Italy by cancer type and their specific health care needs may be helpful to health‐care planners and clinicians in the development of guidelines aimed to reduce the burden of late effect of treatments during childhood.