All issues > Volume 31(1); 1988

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1988;31(1):78-85. Published online January 31, 1988.

A Epidemiologic Study of Malignant Tumors of Children in Chonnam Area.

Myong Hee Kook¹, Hys Ran Min¹, Tai Ju Hwang¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Chonnam National University, Kwangju Korea

Received: July 25, 1987;

Abstract

A Total 655 cases of malignant tumors in childhood under 15 years of age who admitted to general hospitals in Chonnam area during the 10-year period from January 1976 to December 1985 were analysed. The frequency of malignant tumors among total pediatric inpatients was 2.64% (1.48〜4.52%) with tendency to increse year after year. In 1980, the number of population under 15 years of age was 1, 431,683, but decreased gradually to 1,268,039 in 1984. However, children’s cancer patients actually increased annually. In general male are affected more often than female with sex ratio (M/F) of 1.48:1. The most common malignancy was leukemia (43.05%). Out of 282 cases of leukemia, 174 cases (61. 70%) were acute lymphocytic, 78 cases (27.66%) were acute myelogenous, 12 cases (4.26%) were chronic myelogenous, and 18 cases (6.38%) were unclassified leukemia. The next common malignancy in childhood was brain tumor (16.03%), followed by lymphoma (9.16%), Wilms' tumor (6.11%), neuroblastoma and gonadal and germ cell tumor (4.43%), bone tumor (4.12%), retinoblastoma (3.66%), liver tumor (3.51%), and soft tissue tumor (3.36%) in order. Retinoblastoma and liver tumor were relatively prevalent compared to U.S.A. and European countries. About 38.32% of malignant tumors were found under 5 years of age. Wilms’ tumor, neuroblastoma, gonadal and germ cell tumor, retinoblastoma, and liver tumor were seen mostly before the age of 5 to 6 years, while brain tumor, lymphoma, and bone tumor have the tendency to increase the incidence over the age of 6 years. There were significant geographical differences in the incidence of malignancy per 100 thousand population under 15 years of age according to area to area. Overall incidence rate of childhood cancer was 5.17/105 population. Geographically, in Yeochon, Yeosu, Kwangju, Hwasun, Muan, and Gogseong were 8.85, 7.00, 6.95, 6.34, 5.98, and 5.58 per 100 thousand population respectively. Such high frequency rates in Yeochon and Yeosu were statistically significant (p<0.01). It appears that above results may offer some useful informations on the frequency rates of childhood malignancies in Chonnam area.

Keywords :Epidemiologic study of frequency, Childhood malignancies.