Childhood Cancer in Britain Incidence, survival, mortality

Cancer is diagnosed in about 140 per million children in Britain each year. There is a 1 in 500 chance that a child will be affected in the first 15 years of life, the most frequently occurring types of cancer being leukaemia and brain tumours. This book covers the descriptive epidemiology of childhood cancer in Britain, based on the unique work of the National Registry of Childhood Tumours, the largest population-based specialist childhood cancer registry in the world. The book provides a detailed account of national incidence and survival rates for childhood cancer in Britain during 1991-2000, and trends during 1966-2000. There is also an account of childhood mortality for the period 1965-2004. The diagnoses are classified throughout according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, the first time the third edition of this standard classification has been used for prevalence of incidence, survival and mortality data. The chapter on incidence rates is relevant to planning of health service provision and design of research studies on aetiology, whilst the chapter on trends in incidence is relevant to the possible effects of changes in environmental and other risk factors. In addition to comprehensive tables of rates, age-incidence graphs are provided for all the major types of childhood cancer, and possible artefacts are also discussed. The survival data demonstrates how clinical progress over the past 40 years has led to a major increase in the number of cancer survivors. The role of the Registry, covering history, methodology, current and future uses, is also discussed. This definitive work is the culmination of decades of epidemiological research and is essential reading for anyone involved in paediatric oncology or cancer epidemiology.

1. Introduction. 2. Methods. 3. Incidence of Childhood Cancer 1991-2000. 4. Time Trends in Incidence 1966-2000. 5. Survival from Childhood Cancer. 6. Childhood Cancer Mortality. 7. Uses of the NRCT.

Charles Stiller has been a member of Childhood Cancer Research Group since 1976 and is now Senior Research Fellow and Director of the National Registry of Childhood Tumours. He has been involved in descriptive epidemiology of childhood cancer, studies of outcome for children and young people with cancer in relation to patterns of organization of medical care, and studies of genetic factors in relation to aetiology of childhood cancer. Mr Stiller has been a member of the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (formerly the UK Children's Cancer Study Group) since 1984 and has served on several of its working groups. He is also a Member of the Paediatric Panel of the European Journal of Cancer.

This book is a landmark volume demonstrating the remarkable progress over only 40 years in combating cancer in children...The book written by Charles Stiller and his colleagues from the Childhood Cancer Research Group in Oxford is a treasure trove of information which is interesting to dip in to but also hugely important for those needing to make detailed study.