CANCER IN YOUNG-PEOPLE IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND, 1968-85 - ANALYSIS BYCENSUS WARDS

Objective-To determine whether the seeming excess of childhood leukaem ia and lymphoma identified in Seascale, Cumbria, UK, remains unusual w hen put into a wider context. Design-Analysis of cancer incidence by g eographical area. Setting-The north of England including the Northern and North Western Regional Health Authority regions and the Southport and South Sefton districts of the Mersey Regional Health Authority. Su bjects-Altogether 6686 cases of malignant disease in people under 25 y ears old. Measurements and main results-Cases of cancer diagnosed befo re their 25th birthday between january 1968 and December 1985 identifi ed from three regional cancer registries were allocated to a census wa rd on the basis of 'usual place of residence'. Population data were de rived from the 1971 and 1981 censuses, and the cancer incidence was ca lculated for each ward. Of the 6686 cases, there were 1035 cases of ac ute lymphoblastic leukaemia and 361 of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Wards we re ranked by cancer incidence and Poisson probability, using different population bases. Seascale ward is the most highly ranked ward for ac ute lymphoblastic leukaemia for the time periods 1968-85 or 1968-76. I t is not the most highly ranked for non-Hodgkins lymphoma. However, co mbining acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma incide nce gives an even more extreme position for Seascale. The most extreme Poisson probability for any of the analyses was that for brain tumour s in the electoral ward of Ashton St Michael, Tameside (p=0.000009). C onclusion-The incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and non-Hodgk ins lymphoma in the Seascale ward remains high when put into a wider c ontext. For other cancers there are wards with even more extreme Poiss on probability values.