title: Improving survival for childhood cancer in Slovakia.
abstract: Data from the National Cancer Registry of Slovakia were used to evaluate survival for 2,958 childhood cancer patients registered between 1968 and 1987 and aged 0-14 years at diagnosis. Actuarial survival rates were computed for children diagnosed in 4 successive 5-year periods and compared. Overall 5-year survival rose from 20% for the period 1968-1972 to 46% for the period 1983-1987. The increase was statistically significant in age groups 1-4, 5-9 and 10-14 years. Survival for children aged less than l year also increased slightly, but this was not statistically significant. In most of the major diagnostic groups, survival increased markedly. Five-year survival rose significantly for leukaemias, lymphomas, CNS neoplasms, Wilms' tumours, bone tumours, soft-tissue sarcomas and germ-cell tumours. Despite this progress, survival in Slovakia remains lower than the corresponding figures from registries in Western Europe and the United States.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kramarova
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Plesko
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Obsitnikova
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D018154:Slovakia; D016019:Survival Analysis