Age-standardized incidence rates for childhood cancers at a cancer hospital in a developing country.

Background: Cancer registration is a neglected area in several developing countries of the world including Pakistan due to funding problems and apathy of most health professionals towards reporting of cancer data.

Methods: The epidemiologic review is the first of its type reporting cancers recorded at a cancer hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, in children less than 15 years of age, belonging to Lahore District, in a one year time period from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. The results have been stratified by gender, 5-year age-groups (0-4, 5-9 and 10-14), and the International Classification of Childhood Cancers diagnostic groups. Crude- and age-specific-rates by age-groups were estimated and standardized by applying the direct method of age-standardization using the world standard of Segi (1960) to determine the incidence of childhood cancers per 100,000 population in one year.

Results: In order of ranking, the age-standardized incidence rates (ASR) per 100,000 were as follows: amongst boys, leukemias 1.3, lymphomas and reticuloendothelial neoplasms 1.3, CNS and miscellaneous intracranial/intraspinal tumors 0.7, malignant bone tumors 0.4, and soft tissue sarcomas 0.4; amongst girls, leukemias 0.7, lymphomas and reticuloendothelial neoplasms 0.5, malignant bone tumors 0.3, CNS and miscellaneous intracranial/intraspinal tumors 0.3, and renal tumors 0.3.

Conclusion: The results represent one institution. However, as pediatric cancer care units are rare and specialized, hospital cancer registries in developing countries are likely to record a significant proportion of pediatric cases diagnosed in the area. Hence, it may be worthwhile to generate yearly incidence reports in an attempt to evaluate the trends in childhood cancers in Lahore.