Malignancies are one of the main causes of death in childhood at ages 1-14 in developed countries. The incidence of childhood malignancies, particularly of brain tumours, has been increasing over the past 20 years in Scandinavia, probably more than would be expected as a result of changes in diagnostic practice alone.12 Epidemiologic studies suggest a number of risk factors for childhood cancer. These include factors associated with the child, with the environment, with the mother during pregnancy, or with the father or the mother before conception.3-Among the risk factors operating during pregnancy, maternal irradiation has been shown to carry a risk to the child.7-The maternal intake of diethylstilboestrol has been shown to cause vaginal cancer in the offspring after an intrauterine exposure.10
Between 1953 and 1970, 2,605 malignant tumors in children under 15 years of age were reported to the Finnish Cancer Registry, a population-based registry that covers the whole country (population, 4.6 million). The mean annual age-adjusted incidence rates per million were 128 in males and 108 in females. The most common neoplasms were leukemia (age-adjusted incidence rates, 43.7 in males; 34;7 in females), brain tumors (26.4 in males, 22.8 in females), renal tumors (10;0 in males, 9.1 in females), lymphomas (10.8 in males, 5.3 in females), and bone tumors (5;3 in males, 5.1 in females). This distribution is roughly the same as the observed in many other white populations. However, the incidence rates of leukemia, lymphomas, neuroblastomas, and soft-tissue tumors were somewhate lower than figures reported in the Third National Cancer Survey of the United States.
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