title: Incidence and time trends of soft tissue sarcomas in German children 1985-2004 - a report from the population-based German Childhood Cancer Registry.
abstract: The incidence of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) in Europe is increasing, but it is unclear whether this increase can also be seen in Germany. We analysed the heterogeneous group of STS recorded to the German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR) between 1985 and 2004 with respect to incidence data. Age-specific, age-standardised and cumulative incidence rates were calculated. Additionally, the average annual percent change (AAPC), derived from a Poisson regression model, was estimated, using time in years as the explanatory, continuous variable. Two thousand sixty-one children were diagnosed at a median age of 72 months. Most common are rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) (n=1202) and fibrosarcomas (n=174). The age-standardised incidence rate (ASR) is 0.9 per 100,000/year for all STS, 0.70 for rhabdomyosarcoma-like (n=1588) and 0.18 for non-rhabdomyosarcoma-like (n=411) STS. AAPC is +0.4% (95%-confidence interval [-0.4;+1.2%]) for STS. In Germany, the increase in incidence rate is less evident than in other European countries.
authors: German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR), Institute for Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Weihkopf
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Blettner
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Dantonello
authors: Irene
authors: I
authors: Jung
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Klingebiel
authors: Ewa
authors: E
authors: Koscielniak
authors: Monika
authors: M
authors: Lückel
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Spix
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Kaatsch
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D005354:Fibrosarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012208:Rhabdomyosarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors