title: Incidence of leukemias in children from El Salvador and Mexico City between 1996 and 2000: population-based data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are very few studies that report the incidence of acute leukemias in children in Latin America. This work assesses the incidence of acute leukemias, between 1996 and 2000, in children from 0-14 years old who were attended at the Mexican Social Security Institute in Mexico City and in children from 0-11 years old in El Salvador.
  
  
  METHODS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  Population-based data. Hospitals: In San Salvador, El Salvador, Hospital Nacional de Niños "Benjamin Bloom", the only center in El Salvador which attends all children, younger than 12 years, with oncologic disease. The Pediatric Hospital and the General Hospital of the Mexican Social Security Institute in Mexico City, the only centers in Mexico City which attend all those children with acute leukemia who have a right to this service.
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients were diagnosed by bone marrow smear and were divided into acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and unspecified leukemias (UL). The annual incidence rate (AIR) and average annual incidence rate (AAIR) were calculated per million children. Cases were stratified by age and assigned to one of four age strata: 1) <1 year; 2) 1-4 years; 3) 5-9 years, or 4) 10-14 or 10-11 years, for Mexico City and El Salvador, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of cases was 375 and 238 in El Salvador and Mexico City, respectively. AAIRs in Mexico City were 44.9, 10.6, 2.5, 0.5, and 58.4 per million children for ALL, AML, CML, UL, and total leukemias, respectively. The AAIRs in El Salvador could not be calculated because the fourth age stratum in El Salvador included children only from 0-11 years old. The incidence rates for the Salvadorian group of 0-11 year olds were 34.2, 7.1, 0.6, 0.2, and 43.2 per million children for ALL, AML, CML, UL, and total leukemias, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reported AIRs for each age group in El Salvador were similar to those from other American countries. The AAIR of ALL in Mexico City is one of the highest reported for North America.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology, Pediatric Hospital, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Mexico City, Mexico. jmejiaa@cis.gob.mx
authors.forename: Juan Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mejía-Aranguré
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonilla
authors.forename: Rodolpho
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lorenzana
authors.forename: Servando
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Juárez-Ocaña
authors.forename: Gladys
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de Reyes
authors.forename: María Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Pérez-Saldivar
authors.forename: Guadalupe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: González-Miranda
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bernáldez-Ríos
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ortiz-Fernández
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortega-Alvarez
authors.forename: María del Carmen
authors.initials: Mdel C
authors.lastname: Martínez-García
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fajardo-Gutiérrez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004544:El Salvador; D006753:Hospital Records; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007938:Leukemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000175:diagnosis; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008800:Mexico; D011153:Population; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence