Incidence rates of childhood cancer for the city of Ho Chi Minh are presented 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 female 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 comparison with other countries in eastern Asia and with the predominantly white population of Australia. Leukaemia (principally acute lymphocytic), brain tumours and lymphomas were the most common childhood neoplasms, which is consistent with the pattern observed in other registries of the region. The rate of retinoblastoma was higher than in the other regional registries. On the other hand, no cases of hepatocellular carcinoma were registered.
The results from the population-based cancer registry for the city of Ho Chi Minh in 1995-1996 represent the first information on the incidence of cancer in southern Viet Nam. A total of 4,080 cancer cases in males and 4,338 in females were registered, corresponding to age-standardized incidence rates (ASRs) of 130.9 per 100,000 in men and 100.7 per 100,000 in women. As elsewhere in South East Asia, the principal cancer of men was liver cancer (ASR 25.3), with moderately high rates of lung cancer (ASR 24.6) and stomach cancer (ASR 16.5); cancer of the penis, reportedly very common in early case series from Viet Nam, is now rarely seen. In women, cervical cancer was the dominant malignancy (ASR 26.0) followed by breast cancer (ASR 12.2) and stomach cancer (ASR 7.5). Although there may be some under-registration in these early years of operation, the recorded rates of cervical cancer and liver cancer are already high and suggest that southern Viet Nam would benefit from an effective cervical cancer screening programme, as well as efforts to interrupt the transmission of hepatitis B virus to reduce liver cancer incidence and effective anti-smoking programs. Int.
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