[Registries of cancer in children in France]

The specificity of childhood cancers and the lack of available incidence data in Europe (with the exception of the Manchester and Turin registries) led to the creation of two French regional childhood cancer registries (CCR), in Nancy (1983) and Marseille (1984); both are population based CCR, respectively covering 535,236 and 809,196 children (0 to 14 years). All malignant neoplasms, brain tumours (whatever the grading) and borderline malignancies are included. Data have been collected from medical and administrative sources. Registration is active and each source is recontacted annually. The registries contact all physicians who might include children among their patients (private and hospital practice) and pathology-cytology laboratories. The University Hospital Centers and Anti-Cancer Centers in adjacent regions and in Paris are contacted. Data collected are the following: name, age, sex, address, time and method of diagnosis, histology, anatomical site, stage, treatment and sources of information. We combined our own data with those of a general cancer registry, set up in Strasbourg in 1975 and covering 205,889 children. The reliability of the methodology is attested by the similarity of results to those obtained in other European, US and Australian CCR. This type of registry is needed for organizing studies on the descriptive, analytical and experimental epidemiology in pediatric oncology.