Delhi tops in Asia among childhood cancers in boys in 0-14 yrs age group

Delhi has the highest rate of childhood cancers among boys in the age group of 0-14 years in Asia, recently published data from the National Cancer Registry has shown.

Out of every one million boys aged upto 14 years living in Delhi, 203.1 suffer cancer, the data report, that took into account the cancer landscape in India’s select places from 2012-2016, showed.

In the age group of 0-19 years, Delhi trails behind China’s Jiangmen — the highest cancer incidence city among boys in Asia — only by a difference of six cases per million population.

The report includes figures from 28 population-based cancer registries (PBCR) and 58 hospital-based cancer registries (HBCR) in India.

A PBCR count denotes the cancer cases in a given geographical unit, for instance, Delhi. It can be a district or even a state.

Two units from north India, five from south India, one from east India, six from west India, seven from central India and 11 from the North East formed part of PBCR. The HBCR takes into account the number of cases that go to a particular hospital irrespective of their geographical background.

Boys aged upto 14 years cotributed 4.7 per cent of all cancer cases in Delhi. The corresponding figure for the 0-19 years age group is 6.3 per cent.

Delhi, thus, topped the list of 28 PBCRs in terms of how many childhood cancers were registered among all cancers. The national capital was followed by the districts of Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Hyderabad (Telangana) and Wardha (Maharashtra) as well as the entire state of Manipur.

Among girls, the trend was not much different. Delhi was followed by Barshi Rural and Aurangabad in Maharashtra and the states of Manipur and Mizoram.

Delhi’s incidence rate of childhood cancers among boys in the 0-14 age group was 203.1 per million population; again, the highest among all the PBCRs.

It was followed by the Chennai, Aizawl, Thiruvananthapuram, Patiala, Kollam districts and Bengaluru.  The order of PBCRs in this category is not different in the last cancer registry figures. However, the incidence has come down a bit in all these cities except for a couple of outliers.

Incidence (Cases per million) of cancer among children aged 0-14 years

Among girls in the same age-bracket, Delhi was again on the top, trailed by Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Kollam and Aizawl.

The overall trend of childhood cancers in the 0-14 years category in all the PBCRs among both sexes showed a marginal decline in this registry as compared to the last. The proportion of childhood cancers relative to cancers in all age groups varied between 0.7- 3.7 per cent according to the new registry figures. According to the last registry data, the corresponding range was 0.7- 4.4 per cent.

Types of childhood cancers

Leukaemia contributed to a little less than half of all the childhood cancers among both age groups and both sexes; followed by lymphomas. This fact was captured through the HBCR data.

Leukaemia contributed 46.4 per cent and 43.2 per cent of all childhood cancers among boys in the 0-14 years and 0-19 years categories respectively.

In the case of girls, the contribution of this form of cancer was 44.3 per cent and 39.2 per cent in the 0-14 years and 0-19 years categories respectively. Lymphoma caused cancer in 16.4 per cent cases in boys and 7.6 per cent cases in girls aged between 0 and 14 years. 

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