Treatment of childhood cancer in China:Current status and future direction

摘要

Introduction China has a population of 1.3 billion and 16.6%of the population(212 million)is below age of 15 years according to the sixth national census in 2010.1 Chinese National Central Cancer Registry(NCCR)collected data from 219 cancer registries distributed in different parts of China.In 2010 data from NCCR reported that childhood cancer comprised approximately 0.6%of all cancers.In a recent study analyzed data from 145 cancer registries in China,the age-standardized incidence rate of childhood cancer was 87.1 per million.The top five commonest childhood cancers were leukemia(35.6 per million),central nervous system(CNS)tumor(15.0 per million),lymphoma(6.4 per million),bone cancer(4.4 per million)and kidney cancer(3.7 per million).2 The incidence is lower than western countries but similar to those reported by other low-middle income countries.The reasons for lower incidence of childhood cancer may be related to incomplete data collection.In China,there is a large floating population,221 million,who were not permanent residents in locations they worked and might not be included in the city registration.The projected number of new cases of childhood cancer in 0-14 years is 22875,and new cases of leukemia projected to be 8943 in 2015.It is important to have accurate data on incidence and survival that will help the government in policy making on health care delivery.