Childhood cancer incidence in Queensland, 1979-88

Data on the incidence of childhood cancer in Queensland during the 10-year period 1979-88 are presented. During this period, 786 cases were registered. The average annual crude and age-standardized (to the world population) incidence rates for both sexes were 12.63 and 13.30 per 100,000 respectively. The incidence of cancer in males is unusually high, as is the sex ratio of 1.57. ALL accounted for 78% of all leukaemias. There appears to have been a decline in the incidence of Hodgkin's disease, especially in older children, compared with an earlier Queensland series. Ewing's tumour remains commoner than osteosarcoma. Some modifications to the classification scheme for childhood cancer are proposed. The most important of these is the omission of Langerhans-cell histiocytosis, which is not now regarded as a neoplasm.