The incidence of childhood cancer is lower in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to the global average, although certain types of cancer were more prominent in this region, such as leukemia and lymphoma in children under 14 years of age and cancers classified as other tumors in children and young people under 20 years of age.
The Pan American Journal of Public Health published this Tuesday a study that presents the incidence of cancer in children aged 0 to 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean, including geographic patterns between 2001 and 2010 and trends over time for the period between 1993 and 2012.
He documentprepared by the International Cancer Research Centre, shows that children aged 0 to 14 years in Latin America and the Caribbean have a higher incidence of lymphoma compared to global data.
According to the authors, the excess lymphoma can be explained by the greater exposure of young children to certain viruses that are related to lymphoma and that are common in Latin America and the Caribbean: the Epstein-Barr virus, the sarcoma herpesvirus Kaposi and the human T-lymphotropic virus.
Main findings
For the period 2001-2010, researchers noted that each year there were approximately 133 new cases of cancer per million children in the region.
For all other populations with available data, the corresponding rate was 141 per million.
Although the overall incidence was lower in Latin America and the Caribbean, certain types of cancer were more prominent in this region than the global averagesuch as leukemia and lymphoma in the 0-14 age group and cancers classified as other tumors in all ages.
Thus, according to the study, Latin America and the Caribbean has the highest average incidence of lymphoma in the age range of 0 to 14 years.
Children under 15 years
In children under 15 years of age, the most common types of cancer were leukemia (49 new cases per million children per year), neoplasms of the central nervous system (23 per million) and lymphoma (17 per million).
Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in most populations, with the world average being 46 per million.
Young people from 15 to 19 years old
In young people between 15 and 19 years old, The overall incidence of cancer in Latin America and the Caribbean (152 per million) was lower than the world average (191 per million).
The incidence was also lower for several cancer groups, including lymphoma (30 vs. 41 per million) and central nervous system neoplasms (14 vs. 26 per million), while the incidence of leukemia and some other cancer groups was similar to global data.
In this age range, the only cancer group whose incidence was higher in Latin America and the Caribbean than the world average was the group of other tumors and unspecified tumors.
Access to care and data registration
The researchers observed an increase in global cancer incidence rates of 1.0% per year during the period 1993-2012 in children under 20 years of age.
This increase indicates a improved access to cancer care and registration, as well as changes in exposure, as countries continue their overall socioeconomic development. The observed patterns provide the baseline for evaluating the status and evolution of childhood cancer incidence in the region.
However, “more timely and complete data are needed to better understand these patterns and support the development of effective strategies for the control of childhood cancer,” said the scientist from the Cancer Surveillance Branch of the Center for Cancer Research.
Eva Steliarova-Foucher added that the results “call for continued monitoring of patterns and trends.”
The Research Center highlighted that the reported results are based on only 16% of the population from 0 to 14 years old and only 10% of the population from 15 to 19 years old in the region, so much greater coverage is needed. to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the data collected.
“Extended and sustained government support for cancer registration is required to improve coverage of the childhood population through cancer registration and to provide the comparable data required for childhood cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean, for the benefit of current and future childhood cancer patients,” concluded Steliarova. -Foucher.
