Malignant ovarian tumours in childhood in Britain, 1962-78

Abstract

Less than 10% of the neoplasms occurred at age <5 years, -20% from 5-9, and >70% from 10-14 years. Germ cell neoplasms of greater malignancy (immature teratomas, endodermal sinus tumours) occurred in a significantly higher proportion at younger age ( < 10 years) than dysgerminomas (P =0.01).The overall incidence (- Ovarian tumours are extremely rare in infants and children, representing a small proportion of all ovarian neoplasms (-0.2-0.3% of such tumours occur in girls under 15 years, OPCS, 1980-82). The childhood tumours do, however, include many distinct pathological and clinical entities, with differing epidemiology, therapeutic approach and prognosis.The great variety of types and the structural complexity of the pathological classification have hindered efforts at analytical studies on appropriate numbers: although a considerable number of papers dealing with this subject have been published over the last few years, the great majority are single-case reports. The few series reporting greater numbers of patients are mostly based on hospital case lists (Breen & Maxson, 1977), from which only unreliable estimates of the relative frequency can be derived, and often include both benign and tPresent address:

Trends in survival for childhood cancer in Britain diagnosed 1971-85

“…The role of chemotherapy in ovarian tumours during the first half of the study period has been previously described (La Vecchia et al, 1983). The improvements in more recent years were parallel with those in the UKCCSG germ-cell tumour studies (Mann et al, 1989), in which many of the children analysed here were entered.…”

Changing incidence and geographical distribution of malignant paediatric germ cell tumours in the West Midlands Health Authority region, 1957-92

“…The significant difference in rates in the 10-14 age group between the two time periods was largely accounted for by the increase in ovarian tumours. This rising incidence contrasts with the finding of La Vecchia et al (1983) that there was no increasing trend in incidence of childhood ovarian tumours in general, although, since their study closed in 1978, they were not in a position to observe any later increase. It has since been shown that the incidence of ovarian tumours in adults is increasing in the UK (Walker et al, 1984;dos Santos and Swerdlow, 1991) and our observed increase, confirmed in the national study by Mann and Stiller (1994), indicates that this trend is also present in children.…”

Tumeurs ovariennes de l’enfant et de l’adolescente : à propos d’une série de 41 cas

“…anatomo-pathologiques. Les grandes séries pédiatriques (plus de 40 cas) sont rares et très peu descriptives sur le plan de l'imagerie [3,4,6,10]. Deux séries anciennes reposent essentiellement sur l'échographie [6,10].…”

“…Les grandes séries pédiatriques (plus de 40 cas) sont rares et très peu descriptives sur le plan de l'imagerie [3,4,6,10]. Deux séries anciennes reposent essentiellement sur l'échographie [6,10]. Les études de Brookfield et al [3] portant sur 1037 tumeurs malignes de l'ovaire ou d'Oltmann et al [4] portant sur 424 masses ovariennes sont surtout dédiées au traitement.…”

“…Cette différence s'explique probablement par le caractère « purement pédiatrique » de cette série (100 % des patientes sont âgées de moins de 15 ans contre 38 % dans l'étude de Brookfield et al [3]). De même, l'absence de tumeur épithé-liale maligne, à la différence des autres séries [3,4,6,10], s'explique probablement par une proportion plus faible d'adolescentes.…”