Introduction: A lack of a population-based cancer registry or underreporting is common in developing countries, without knowledge of the true dimensions of the problem.
Aim: To describe the age and sex frequencies of the major subtypes of leukemias in two reference hospitals in the metropolitan area of Mexico City.
Material and methods: A descriptive and retrospective study, based on medical records of two hematology services during January 2007 to October 2014; all cases diagnosed with leukemia were included.
Results: A total of 1,432 cases were included, with a median age of 38 years old (2 months to 115 years). There were significant age differences between subtypes of leukemia (ANOVA test, p = 0.000); chronic lymphocytic with a mean age of 64.8 years, higher than chronic myeloid (43.4 years) and all acute leukemias (lymphoblastic: 32.6 years, myeloblastic 43.5 years). Of the patients, 51.8% (n = 742) were women, although males predominated in chronic myeloid (57.8%) and lymphocytic (60%) leukemia. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the more common variety, L2 subtype of the French-American-British classification, followed by myeloid leukemia M4, M2, and chronic myeloid.
Conclusions: it is necessary to develop inter-institutional works in order to group data of different population sectors and improve the epidemiological profile of leukemias in Mexico.