Cancer and other causes of childhood mortality in Bombay, India

Mortality from cancer and other diseases from 1964 to 1984 and their contributions in 1984 to premature mortality in Bombay, India, were studied. Cancer was the ninth and tenth cause of death in boys and girls younger than 15 years of age, respectively, in 1984. Prematurity and infectious diseases contributed most to years of potential life lost by children younger than 5 years of age in 1984; cancer, heart disease, and accidents-injury became important in children older than 5 years. When currently high mortality rates in infants and children younger than 5 years of age are reduced, cancer may become a greater childhood health problem. Approximately 5% of male and 3% of female patients with cancer in six hospital and three population-based cancer registries in India were children younger than 15 years of age. Cancer mortality declined from the rate during 1964 to 1972 to the rate during 1973 to 1984 by about 40% in children younger than 5 years old and in girls of 10 to 14 years of age and by 7.5% and 14% in the 5 to 9-year-old boys and girls, respectively. It increased by 12% in the 10 to 14-year-old boys. Early diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children older than 5 years of age may yield increased productive person-years of life.