Incidence of childhood cancers in rural areas of the Lublin Region in 1988-2000.

Unlabelled: The purpose of the work was the analysis of the number and structure of new neoplasm and morbidity in children living in rural areas of the Lublin Region of Poland.

Methods: the study included the population of children aged 0-17 in the years 1988-2000. The tumours were divided according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancers. The analysis determined the incidence of all tumours and individual types and the rates of percentage structure and incidence. These parameters were calculated for the whole population according to sex and age.

Results: 430 cases of childhood cancers were reported. Boys were 53.7%. The most frequent was leukemia (24.4%), neoplasm of CNS (19.5%) and lymphomas (16%). The mean morbidity rate was 100,8 per million (among boys--105.6, girls--95.8).

Conclusions: I. The patient's place of residence is one of the factors affecting the structure of cancers. 2. Higher percentage of lymphomas and CNS tumours and lower percentage of leucaemias and tumours of the sympathetic nervous system and bones was observed in the Lublin Region compared to the values determined for the whole country. 3. The population examined showed lower malignant tumour incidence than that in the whole country as well as increased lymphoma incidence.