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Incidence trends in childhood cancer in Queensland, 1973 ‐1988
Author(s) -
McWhirter William R,
Petroeschevsky Anna L
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1991.tb121174.x
Subject(s) - incidence (geometry) , medicine , epidemiology , cancer registry , pediatrics , cancer , childhood cancer , malignancy , demography , pathology , physics , sociology , optics
Objective To determine whether there are any secular trends in the incidence of childhood cancer in Queensland. Design A retrospective epidemiological study of the incidence of cancer in children, aged 0‐12 years, in Queensland during the 16‐year period 1973‐1988 inclusive. Setting Cases were found from the records of the Queensland Childhood Malignancy Registry. Ascertainment is believed to be virtually complete for children aged 0‐12 years. Participants All children who were resident in Queensland and less than 13 years of age at the time of diagnosis of cancer. The cases included all malignant neoplasms and also all intracranial neoplasms in children but excluded Langerhans' cell histiocytosis. Main outcome measurements The incidence by year of diagnosis was calculated for each of a number of standard diagnostic groups of neoplasms. These data were analysed by the x 2 for trend test. Results Cancer incidence was found to be increasing at a rate of about 0.9% per year. The rise was almost entirely accounted for by a rise in incidence among boys, whereas there was virtually no change in the incidence in girls. Statistically significant increases in incidence were found in acute nonlymphocytic leukaemia and also in nonHodgkin's lymphoma in boys; Hodgkin's disease was found to be decreasing in incidence. Conclusions The results of this study emphasise the importance of childhood cancer incidence surveillance in Australia to determine whether these trends will continue in the future. The findings also indicate a need for continuing research in childhood cancer epidemiology.