Background: Childhood cancers are among the leading causes of child mortality worldwide. We aimed to analyze the spatiotemporal incidence patterns of five common cancer types in Iran.
Material and methods: A total of 17155 incident malignant 0-14 years old cases during 2005-2013 recorded by the Iran National Cancer Registry were included. An adaptive spatiotemporal smoothing model was applied to explore spatiotemporal variations of the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR).
Results: The highest overall ASIR was estimated at 137.9 per million person-years in 2011-2013. Most of the five common cancers had an increasing trend in most provinces for both males and females during this time.
Conclusion: Increasing ASIR and risk of cancers were observed during the study period, which follows the trend of childhood cancers incidence worldwide. The health system should take this rise as a serious alarm and provide appropriate prevention plans.
Keywords: Childhood cancer; Iran; Registry; Spatiotemporal analysis.
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