Incidence of childhood cancer in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1995-97

Incidence rates of childhood cancer for the city of Ho Chi Minh are present ed for the first time. For the 3-year period 1995-97, a total of 302 cancer cases were registered in children under 15 years of age, with a male to fe male ratio of 1.1. The overall crude rate was 78.8 and the age-standardised incidence rate was 88.4 per million person-years, which was low in compari son with other countries in eastern Asia and with the predominantly white p opulation of Australia. Leukaemia (principally acute lymphocytic), brain tu mours and lymphomas were the most common childhood neoplasms, which is cons istent with the pattern observed in other registries of the region. The rat e of retinoblastoma was higher than in the other regional registries. On th e ether hand, no cases of hepatocellular carcinoma were registered.