Survival trends of childhood cancer diagnosed during 1970–1994 in Piedmont, Italy: A report from the Childhood Cancer Registry

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Abstract
Background: The Childhood Cancer Registry of Piedmont (CCRP) started its activity in 1967. It is population based and covers the Piedmont Region (population 4,500,000; NW Italy). This article reports on time trends in survival after a childhood cancer diagnosed during 1970–1994.Procedure: During 1970–1994, 2,329 incident cases were registered at CCRP on the basis of histological and/or clinical information, excluding 30 cases reported only by death certificate. Histological or hematological diagnosis was available for 2,067 cases. Vital status was assessed through the offices of the town of residence. At the end of follow‐up, 1,202 cases were alive, 1,084 dead and 43 were not traceable. Survival was measured for the major diagnostic groups using both univariate and multivariate statistics.Results: The 5‐yr survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) improved regularly from 24.7% in 1970–1974 to 81.1% in 1990–1994, for acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) from 0% to 38.1%, for non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from 25.2% to 67.7%, for tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) (all types) from 33.4% to 75.9% and for Ewing tumor from 0% to 90%. Focusing on survival by period of diagnosis, the highest 5‐year survival rate was observed for children diagnosed during 1985–1989 for medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma (NB), retinoblastoma, Wilms tumor, osteosarcoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma and for children diagnosed in 1990–1994 for the remaining sites. The trend over time was statistically significant for ALL, ANLL, NHL, CNS tumors, NB, and osteosarcoma as well as for all malignancies together.Conclusions: Population‐based survival studies are useful complements to clinical studies. Survival results in the present study are similar to those presented for other European countries and the United States. For most types of neoplasm (except CNS) survival probability appears to stabilize 5–10 years after diagnosis. Med. Pediatr. Oncol. 36:481–488, 2001.