The epidemiology of childhood hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial cancer based on Fars province cancer registry data system from 2001 to 2008

Although the overall incidence of childhood hematopoietic cancer is low, it is the most common cause of cancer in children. The aim of this paper was to ascertain the epidemiology of childhood hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial cancer according to cancer registry data system in Fars province. In this epidemiological study, the frequency distribution of blood cancer during the years 2001-2008 in children under19 years old was evaluated and occurrence rates were calculated per million per year. Data were analyzed by Excel and WinPepi 2.1. Over an 8-year period (2001-2008), 770 new cases of leukemia were recorded among 0-18 year old children including male (61.3%), 0-4 years old (26.4%) and cancer type ALL (39.4%). Moreover, most of the cases were diagnosed in 2008 (20.8%). Over this period, the ASR of leukemia in male (p<0.001), female (p<0.001) and both sexes (p<0.001) has been significantly increasing. Like other parts of the world, the trend of age-standardized incidence rate of leukemia in people under 19 in the Fars province is rising.