ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: There are very few studies that report the incidence of acute leukemias in children in Latin America. This work assesses the incidence of acute leukemias, between 1996 and 2000, in children from 0-14 years old who were attended at the Mexican Social Security Institute in Mexico City and in children from 0-11 years old in El Salvador. DESIGN: Population-based data. Hospitals: In San Salvador, El Salvador, Hospital Nacional de Niños "Benjamin Bloom", the only center in El Salvador which attends all children, younger than 12 years, with oncologic disease. The Pediatric Hospital and the General Hospital of the Mexican Social Security Institute in Mexico City, the only centers in Mexico City which attend all those children with acute leukemia who have a right to this service. DIAGNOSIS: All patients were diagnosed by bone marrow smear and were divided into acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and unspecified leukemias (UL). The annual incidence rate (AIR) and average annual incidence rate (AAIR) were calculated per million children. Cases were stratified by age and assigned to one of four age strata: 1) <1 year; 2) 1-4 years; 3) 5-9 years, or 4) 10-14 or 10-11 years, for Mexico City and El Salvador, respectively. RESULTS: The number of cases was 375 and 238 in El Salvador and Mexico City, respectively. AAIRs in Mexico City were 44.9, 10.6, 2.5, 0.5, and 58.4 per million children for ALL, AML, CML, UL, and total leukemias, respectively. The AAIRs in El Salvador could not be calculated because the fourth age stratum in El Salvador included children only from 0-11 years old. The incidence rates for the Salvadorian group of 0-11 year olds were 34.2, 7.1, 0.6, 0.2, and 43.2 per million children for ALL, AML, CML, UL, and total leukemias, respectively. CONCLUSION: Reported AIRs for each age group in El Salvador were similar to those from other American countries. The AAIR of ALL in Mexico City is one of the highest reported for North America.
