title: An investigation of the epidemiology of neuroblastoma in children under the age of 15 years in England, Scotland and Wales.
abstract: Neuroblastoma is the third commonest tumour of childhood in the UK, having an incidence rate of 1 in 10,500. Incidence and mortality rates were calculated for the whole of the United Kingdom for a period of at least 10 years. The effects of age, stage and regional health authority at diagnosis, year of birth, year of diagnosis and sex on the incidence and mortality rates were determined. Incidence was found to vary with age and stage at diagnosis, and there was a significant interaction between age and stage. A difference in incidence between the sexes was also discovered. Mortality was found to vary with age and stage at diagnosis, although no interaction was found. The finding that mortality has fallen in recent years may be an artefact due to recent records being necessarily incomplete. Survival statistics were calculated for the UK and certain European cases, and the effects on survival of age, stage, region at diagnosis and sex were determined. Survival varied with age and stage at diagnosis, region of diagnosis and sex, although it was only possible to demonstrate significant differences between certain of the stages. It was impossible to test for any interaction term by the methods used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health, Medical School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Innocent
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003201:Computers; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D015981:Epidemiologic Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D014852:Wales / Q000453:epidemiology