An investigation of the epidemiology of neuroblastoma in children under the age of 15 years in England, Scotland and Wales

Neuroblastoma is the third commonest tumour of childhood inthe UK, having an incidence rate of 1 in 10 500. Incidence andmortality rates were calculated for the whole of the UnitedKingdom for a period of at least 10 years. The effects of age,stage and regional health authority at diagnosis, year of birth,year of diagnosis and sex on the incidence and mortality rateswere determined. Incidence was found to vary with age and stageat diagnosis, and there was a significant interaction betweenage and stage. A difference in incidence between the sexes wasalso discovered. Mortality was found to vary with age and stageat diagnosis, athough no interaction was found. The findingthat mortality has fallen in recent years may be an artefactdue to recent records being necessarily incomplete. Survivalstatistics were calculated for the UK and certain European cases,and the effects on survival of age, stage, region at diagnosisand sex were determined. Survival varied with age and stageat diagnosis, region of diagnosis and sex, although it was onlypossible to demonstrate significant differences between certainof the stages. It was impossible to test for any interactionterm by the methods used.