title: Patterns of childhood cancer incidence in Saudi Arabia (1999- 2008).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although childhood cancer is a rare disease, 100,000 children younger than 15 years of age die from cancer each year, the majority of them in developing countries. More data need to be gathered and published particularly in developing countries to better understand the scale of the problem.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to describe the patterns of childhood cancers in Saudi Arabia over a period of ten years (1999-2008).
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive retrospective study was based on secondary data from the Saudi Cancer Registry from 1999 to 2008. All Saudi cases (both genders), under the age of 15 years, who were diagnosed with cancer during the study period, were included in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Childhood cancer in Saudi Arabia, in the period between 1999 and 2008, accounted for about 8% of total cancer cases. The most common encountered cancers were leukemia (34.1%), followed by lymphoma (15.2%), brain (12.4%), and kidney cancers (5.3%). The overall incidence of childhood cancers increased from 8.8 per 100,000 in 1999 to 9.8 per 100,000 in 2008. The incidence rates of cancers per 100,000 in the years 1999 and 2008 were generally higher among males, (9.4 and 11.5 in males vs. 8.3 and 8.1 in females). The highest incidence rate in the surveyed years was apparent in the birth to age 4 years group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cancer is an important public health problem in Saudi Arabia and a major ascending contributor to mortality and morbidity in children. More studies are required to describe the patterns of childhood cancers and related risk factors in Saudi Arabia.
authors: Community Medicine Department, Qassim University, Qassim, Saudi Arabia E-mail : bawazir56@hotmail.com or bawaziram@ngha.med.sa.
authors: Hind M
authors: HM
authors: Al-Mutlaq
authors: Amen Ahmed
authors: AA
authors: Bawazir
authors: Hoda
authors: H
authors: Jradi
authors: Zeyad Abdulaziz
authors: ZA
authors: Al-Dhalaan
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Al-Shehri
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors