Age-standardized Incidence Rates for Childhood Cancers at a Cancer H ospital in a Developing Country

Background: Cancer registration is a neglected area in several developing countries of the world includingPakistan 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 inLahore, Pakistan, in children less than 15-years of age, belonging to Lahore District, in a one-year time periodfrom January 1, 2008-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 agespecific-rates by age-groups were estimated and standardized by applying the direct method of agestandardizationusing the world standard of Segi (1960) to determine the incidence of childhood cancers per100,000 population in one year.
Results: In order of ranking, the age-standardized incidence rates (ASR) per100,000 were as follows: amongst boys - leukemias 1.3, lymphomas and reticuloendothelial neoplasms 1.3, CNSand 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 resultsrepresent one institution. However, as pediatric cancer care units are rare and specialized, hospital cancerregistries in developing countries are likely to record a significant proportion of pediatric cases diagnosed in thearea. Hence, it may be worthwhile to generate yearly incidence reports in an attempt to evaluate the trends inchildhood cancers in Lahore.