Objective: To describe the clinical pattern of childhood and adolescent cancers across India using hospital-based data in the National Cancer Registry Program.
Methods: Records of 60720 cancer cases in the 0-19 year age group for the period 2012-2019 from 96 hospital-based cancer registries were reviewed. Childhood cancers were classified based on the International Classification of Childhood Cancer (ICCC). Descriptive analysis was used to examine the distribution of cancer by five-year age groups, sex and ICCC diagnostic groups and subgroups. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS software and visualised using R software.
Results: 3.2% and 4.6% of all cancer cases in India were among children in the 0-14 year and 0-19 year age groups respectively. The male-to-female ratio for all cancers was 1.72 for 0-14 years and 1.73 for 0-19 years. The four leading groups of cancers among 0-14 year olds were leukemia (40%), lymphoma (12%), central nervous system tumor (11%) and bone cancer (8%). The four leading cancers among the 0-19 year age group were leukemia (36%), lymphoma (12%), bone (11%) and central nervous system tumor (10%).
Conclusion: Cancers in the 0-14 and 0-19 age groups accounted for a considerable proportion of all cancers with significant male preponderance. Such information helps to fine-tune research and planning strategies.