ABSTRACT
Introduction and Objective: cancers in children involve a group of malignancies which are known to be the main cause of most common mortality in industrialized nations. The most serious malignant cancer in children is leukemia with an incidence rate of 30-33 per one million in American and European countries. This study was done to determine the incidence rate of cancer in 2001
Materials and Methods: the data were collected through face to face interviews with the patients' mothers and the questionnaires were filled out by the investigator. The data were analyzed by SPSS software
Results: according to findings of this study, the incidence rate of leukemia in Fars province was 32.6 [37.1 in males and 27.1 in females] per one million people under 15. Maximum of incidence was in 0-4 years age group and it happened more in urban than rural areas. The disease occurred more in boys than in girls [p<0.05]
Conclusion: on the whole, the incidence pattern of cancer in Fars is similar to those in European and American countries. Sex, age and place of residence appear to be important factors in the development of this disease