Incidence trends in childhood cancer in Queensland, 1973-1988.

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 chi 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 non-lymphocytic leukaemia and also in non-Hodgkin'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.