Incidence of childhood cancer in the autonomous region of Castilla y León in Spain (2003-2007)

• Published in: Anales de pediatría (Barcelona, Spain : 2003) Vol. 73; no. 4; pp. 169 - 179
• Main Authors: González García, H, Quirós, A Blanco, Crespo, C Valbuena, Meléndez, P Gutiérrez, Gómez, S Tamames, Sanz, J Castrodeza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01-10-2010
• Subjects: Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Incidence; Male; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Patient Discharge - statistics & numerical data; Retrospective Studies; Spain - epidemiology; Spain
• ISSN: 1695-9531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anpedi.2010.07.003

Since 1980, childhood cancer cases have been registered in Spain in the National Registry of Childhood Cancer (based on hospital cases) and since 1990, five autonomous regions have had a population based registry. There is no specific registry of childhood cancer in Castilla y Leon.
Our aim was to estimate the childhood cancer incidence in the autonomous region of Castilla y Leon and to assess the usefulness of the computerised diagnosis of hospital discharges as a source of data in a potential autonomous region population based registry.
We included patients younger than 15 years old who were diagnosed, for the first time, of cancer during the years 2003-2007. The information collected was obtained through the Minimum Basic Data Set (MBDS) of the public hospitals in the autonomous region of Castilla y Leon.
In this period of 5 years (2003-2007), 220 cases of childhood cancer had been reported. The most frequent cancer detected was leukaemia (28.6%) followed by the central nervous system tumours (19.5%) and lymphoma (15.9%). The overall rate of childhood cancer incidence was 152.8 cases per million children. The diagnostics codes did not allow tumours to be classified by their histological type in 74 cases (33.6%).
The overall incidence by diagnostic groups of childhood cancer in the autonomous region of Castilla y Leon was similar to those reported by other national and international registries. In a Cancer registry the MBDS could be useful as a data source in the capture of new cases, but in a high percentage of cases it does not allow tumours to be classified by their histological type.