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Incidence, clinical distribution, and patient characteristics of childhood cancer in Saudi Arabia: A population‐based analysis
Author(s) -
Belgaumi Asim F.,
Pathan Ghulam Q.,
Siddiqui Khawar,
Ali Afshan A.,
AlFawaz Ibrahim,
AlSweedan Suleimman,
Ayas Mouhab,
AlKofide Amani A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.27684
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , cancer registry , population , epidemiology , cancer , pediatrics , demography , malignancy , confidence interval , environmental health , physics , sociology , optics
Purpose Information regarding the incidence and patterns of childhood malignancies is disproportionately overrepresented by high‐income countries, representing mainly the Caucasian population. There is a need to evaluate and disseminate information for other ethnicities, particularly from the Middle East. Methods Data from the National Cancer Registry, Saudi Arabia (SA‐NCR), for pediatric patients (age 0–14 years) diagnosed between 2005 and 2009 and for similar patients at our institution during the same period were analyzed. Population numbers reported in the 2007 national census were used to calculate the annual incidence of childhood cancer. Results Data from SA‐NCR on 3885 patients were included in this analysis. The median age was 5.58 years, and 57.3% were males. The annual age‐specific cancer incidence rate (ASR) for children in SA is 99.83 per million population; ASR per million for lymphoid leukemia is 25.75, 12.05 for brain tumors, and 9.82 for Hodgkin lymphoma. Of all childhood cancers in SA, 35% were treated at our institution. The five‐year overall survival for these 1350 patients is 74.6% (median follow‐up 7.52 years [95% confidence interval: 7.36–7.68]). Significant differences in the distribution of childhood malignancy subtypes were evident compared with other countries. Conclusion We have reported differences in the cancer ASR and cancer subtype distribution for children in SA as compared with the worldwide incidence and with other populations. This paper provides a comprehensive epidemiological overview of childhood cancer in SA, which could be extrapolated to other regional Arab populations.