Childhood Cancer: Information Followed in Population-Based Cancer Registry

Abstract

Introduction: The habits and lifestyle of contemporary society has been undergoing radical changes in recent decades. The impact of these changes can impact decisively on the profile of incidence of some tumors of childhood and adolescence. Objective: To carry out a review of incidence data published in the literature regarding cancer in children and teenagers of group III of the International Classification for Childhood Cancer, published by means of Cancer Registries of the U.S., Brazil and Germany. Method: We conducted a literature search of tumors incidence in children under 20 years of age in three countries: Brazil, the United States and Germany. The tumors studied were part of group III of the International Classification for Childhood Cancer. Results: the first specific publication about cancer in children and adolescents in Brazil was released in 2008. It was observed that the highest astrocytomas incidence rates occurred in Goiânia (11.71 per million) and Campinas (11.17 per million). In Germany, the incidence is 16.1per million. The highest incidences of other gliomas in Brazil occurred in Goiânia (5.99) and Belo Horizonte (3.34). In Germany the incidence is 2.8 per million. In the United States, out of all tumors of the central nervous system, the astrocytomas represent 52% and other gliomas are 15%. Conclusions: The results about incidence followed the same pattern in all three countries under study. Population-Based Cancer Registries are important tools for the monitoring of cancers with low incidence in the population.