title: Childhood soft tissue sarcomas incidence and survival in European children (1978-1997): report from the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System project.
abstract: This population-based study is based on 5802 cases of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) in children aged 0-14 years extracted from the database of the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System (ACCIS) and registered in population-based cancer registries in Europe for the period 1978-1997. STS represent almost 8% of neoplasms in children, almost half of whom are less than 5 years at diagnosis. Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most frequent childhood STS (50%). During 1988-1997 the age-standardised incidence of STS in Europe was 9.1 per million children, lowest in the West and East and highest in the North. The incidence of STS increased almost 2% per year over the period 1978-1997, attributable mostly to increase in genito-urinary rhabdomyosarcoma. Prognosis of children with STS was related to age and site of tumour. Five-year survival of children with STS increased from 46% in 1978-1977 to 66% in 1993-1997, reaching 74% in the North for those diagnosed in 1993-1997. This improvement is ascribed to therapy advances.
authors.affiliation: Childhood Cancer Registry of Piedmont, Cancer Epidemiology Unit of the Centre for Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention-CPO Piemonte, CeRMS, University of Turin, Via Santena 7, 10126 Torino, Italy. pastoreguido@tin.it
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pastore
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Peris-Bonet
authors.forename: Modesto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carli
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez-García
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez de Toledo
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Steliarova-Foucher
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors