INCIDENCE OF CHILDHOOD-CANCER IN THAILAND 1988-1991

Incidence rates of cancers of childhood in Thailand are presented for the first time, and compared with results from cancer registries in As ia, Europe and the USA. As elsewhere in the world, leukaemia (principa lly acute lymphocytic), brain tumours and lymphomas comprise two-third s of all childhood neoplasms. Carcinomas are rare, but the principal s ites (liver, nasopharynx, thyroid and salivary gland) are extremely un usual elsewhere. Several features of the cancer pattern correspond to that in other Asian populations (China, Japan, Philippines), in partic ular the low incidence of Hodgkin's disease, Wilm' tumour and Ewing's sarcoma. Conversely, Burkitt's lymphoma is more common than elsewhere, although this may represent increasing awareness of this diagnosis am ongst clinicians in recent years.